Crime & Law

2 Men Face Murder Charges After Young Father Killed on Way to Work on Chicago’s Northwest Side

Police vehicle file photo. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

One of the men accused of killing a young father during an alleged armed robbery on Chicago’s Northwest Side last month was arrested and released shortly after the shooting before being taken back into custody and charged this week.

Chicago police officials on Tuesday announced first-degree murder and armed robbery charges against 32-year-old Divonte Calhoun and Justin Redmond, 41, nearly a month after the killing of 24-year-old Zet Rodriguez.

Rodriguez — who had a young daughter and was expecting a second child — was killed early May 10 just a block from his home as he was on his way to work.

“The callous actions of these offenders left the victim’s loved ones and an entire community mourning the loss of a young father,” Chicago police Deputy Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno said.

According to Bruno, Rodriguez was walking in the 3900 block of North Pittsburgh Avenue at around 7 a.m. when Calhoun allegedly approached and attempted to rob him before fatally shooting Rodriguez.

Police recovered surveillance footage showing Calhoun fleeing the scene in a vehicle allegedly driven by Redmond. Investigators obtained the vehicle’s license plate and found it was registered to a relative of Calhoun, Bruno said.

Police identified and arrested Calhoun the same day of the shooting, and recovered both his cell phone and the vehicle seen fleeing the scene. But he was released without charges the next day as the police investigation continued.Zet Rodriguez (GoFundMe)

According to Bruno, data from both Calhoun and Redmond’s cell phones placed them both in the 3900 block of North Pittsburgh at the time of the shooting and later at a Gurnee gas station where they allegedly stopped later that day.

Investigators recovered surveillance footage from the gas station showing Calhoun wearing the same clothes he’d been seen in at the scene of the shooting earlier, Bruno said.

After gathering this additional evidence. Calhoun was re-arrested Sunday, while Redmond was taken into custody Monday. Bruno said that at the time of Rodriguez’s killing, both defendants were on parole — Calhoun for armed robbery and Redmond for unlawful use of a weapon.

According to Bruno, there were no known connections between Rodriguez and the two defendants, and the armed robbery appeared to be a “random act of violence.” He said the cell phone data police recovered from Calhoun’s phone was instrumental in allowing them to arrest him a second time.

Rodriguez’s family said he graduated from Noble Street College Prep and earned a psychology degree from Albion College in Michigan before returning to Chicago in 2022 to begin a career in social work.

“For our families and community, the impact of his violent and sudden murder is made more difficult by the now-present absence of a father, partner, son, brother, and contributing member of this city,” his family wrote on a GoFundMe fundraiser page, which has helped raise more than $36,000 as of Tuesday.

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