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Chicago Man Jailed Since 2020 Is Charged in Five More Killings, Accused in Six in All

Police and prosecutors say Antonio Reyes, a teenager at the time, shot six people at random over nine months in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Six people were shot to death in Chicago over nine months in 2020, and police and prosecutors say the same teenager killed every one of them. Antonio Reyes had been held in Cook County Jail since his arrest in December 2020 in one of those killings. On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, the Chicago Police Department announced that he had been charged in the other five.

The new charges are five felony counts of first-degree murder and four of attempted first-degree murder. Reyes, now 21, was arraigned on them the same day and pleaded not guilty, according to prosecutors, and he remains in custody. At a news conference the next day, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke and Police Superintendent Larry Snelling laid out the case. "None of these people had ever met Antonio Reyes before, and there's no reason to suspect Antonio Reyes had any reason to target them," O'Neill Burke said.

CBS News Chicago listed the six killings as police and Cook County court records describe them. Francisco Mangana, 31, was shot to death on March 2, 2020, in the 2600 block of West 59th Street. Claudio Cossio, 21, was killed on April 5 in the 4100 block of South Sacramento Avenue, where another man was the victim of an attempted murder in the same shooting. Damian Duran, 16, was killed on May 1 in the 5200 block of South Homan Avenue. Luis Davalos Garcia, 26, was killed on June 24 in the 5800 block of South Rockwell, the case in which Reyes was first arrested. Jose Martinez, 31, was shot on November 8 in the 5400 block of South Homan with his three children, ages 3 to 9, with him; the attempted-murder charges include all three. Justin Gonzalez, 20, was killed on November 9 in the 4700 block of West 59th Street.

O'Neill Burke said the shootings appeared to be completely random. One man was killed at a gas station while trying to buy a soda. Another was sitting in a car with a friend in front of a church on Palm Sunday. A third was taking his family to buy a puppy when he was shot in front of his three children; he died months later.

Investigators tied the cases together in part through a .40-caliber handgun recovered in 2020 and later linked to shell casings found at several scenes, police said. Antoinette Ursitti, the department's chief of detectives, said Reyes's social media footprint was "fairly significant" in connecting him to the shootings, and CBS Chicago reported that surveillance video and tips from the community also helped. Damian Duran's mother, Marlen Rangel, told CBS Chicago she watched her son get into a car with Reyes that day, and when Damian did not come home she confronted Reyes on Snapchat. She said he answered, "That's why your son is rotting in hell." Police said the exchange became key in connecting the dots.

O'Neill Burke said Reyes had also allegedly tried to kill his cellmate with a shank while in jail. Snelling said detectives were still looking into whether he was responsible for other shootings, and Ursitti said police were examining what role, if any, some of his associates played. He was due back in court on March 18. He has not been convicted of any of the killings.

The Chicago Police Department's release of February 25, 2025, gives only the charges; the details above come from the next day's news conference as reported by WTTW News and CBS News Chicago. WTTW gave the victims' ages but not their names. CBS Chicago says the handgun was recovered after the June 2020 shooting; WTTW says only that it was recovered in 2020.

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