Four people, including a 2-year-old boy, were found shot to death Friday afternoon in a home in the Chatham neighborhood.
Police were seeking suspects in the slaying of a 49-year-old man, a 19-year-old man, an 18-year-old woman and the boy. Officers found the bodies inside a bungalow in the 8000 block of South Michigan Avenue at 2:10 p.m. Friday, said police spokesman Pat Camden.
Police said they did not know when the killings occurred.
It appeared nothing was taken from the home and robbery was not a motive, police said, adding that there was no sign of forced entry. Police said a dog was found shot to death in the home.
Though official identifications of the victims were not available late Friday, Camden said the woman was the child’s mother and the older man may have been the woman’s father. The younger man was believed to be her boyfriend, he said.
Relatives and friends of the victims gathered around yellow police tape separating the home from the rest of the residential neighborhood.
Sharon Collins identified her son, Ronald Ryals, 19, and grandson Ronald III, 2, as victims.
“I just don’t understand what happened,” Collins said. “I got a call at home, they said `Get over here, something happened.'”
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Ryals was taking night classes in broadcasting at Kennedy King College in hopes of becoming a disc jockey, she said.
“I didn’t even get a chance to tell him his grades,” Collins said of her son.
Family members said they could not think of a motivation for the killings.
The victims were found after the older man’s employer called police Friday because he didn’t show up at work Thursday and Friday. The man, who worked at a door security company, was off work Monday through Wednesday, the employer told police.
Officers accompanied the employer to the home to check on the man’s well being and, after forcing their way into the home, discovered the bodies in different areas of the house, Camden said.
Tammie Jenkins, 22, a friend of Ryals, said she was with the four at a New Year’s Eve party at the home where the victims were found.
“That was the last time I saw them alive,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know who could’ve done anything like this because [Ryals] got along with everybody. He didn’t have any enemies, he was a friendly guy.”
There were about 10 people playing cards and video games and drinking when she left the party at 2:30 a.m., she said.