Three men were killed and a woman was injured when a convicted felon suspected of impersonating a police officer fled from a traffic stop and slammed into another car on the Southeast Side, authorities said Tuesday.
Chicago police stopped an unmarked Ford Crown Victoria with municipal license plates near 95th Street and Avenue N around midnight Monday, spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
The officers were suspicious because the vehicle had tinted windows, which Chicago police vehicles do not have, she said. They also noticed there was a woman sitting in the front passenger seat.
While officers were checking the driver’s information, he sped away. Less than a minute later, he was traveling about 100 m.p.h. when he slammed into a Volkswagen Passat at 100th Street and Avenue M, Bond said. The Crown Victoria’s driver was killed, as were the two inside the Volkswagen.
Police later determined that the license plates were stolen from a vehicle assigned to Calumet Area detective headquarters.
Family members and the Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the driver of the Volkswagen as Luis Nunez, 20, of Aurora, and the passenger as Nunez’s friend Francisco Jimenez, 24, who was living with a relative of Nunez’s in Aurora.
Authorities and family of the Crown Victoria’s driver identified him as Dwayne Becton, 31, whose last known address was in Harvey.
The woman with Becton was taken to Stroger Hospital, police said. Bond said the woman was treated for minor injuries and released.
Nunez lived with several members of his extended family in a two-story residence. He was one of seven children and worked as an auto mechanic in Aurora, his family said.
“He was an innocent victim,” said his sister-in-law Mireya Nunez. “He was really quiet but very friendly. He was the nicest person I ever knew.
“He was always very helpful to everyone. Whenever anyone ever needed something, he was there. He didn’t drink or smoke, and he loved to work on cars.”
Luis Nunez was returning from a visit to relatives in Chicago at the time of the crash.
Jimenez had worked as a drywall contractor, Mireya Nunez said.
Court records show that Becton — who was sentenced to in prison in 1995 for attempted armed robbery, aggravated battery and armed violence — had a lengthy history of arrests and convictions for drug- and theft-related offenses.
Becton’s sister Tonia Richmond-Fields, 44, of Dolton said that after being released from prison, her brother was never able to get his life on track.
“He was a young boy when he went away,” Richmond-Fields said. “And when he came out, he tried to get jobs, tried to go to [college]. He couldn’t get anybody to hire him.”
Becton worked odd jobs in construction or as a handyman to try to provide for his four children, who range in age from 2 to 13.
His sister didn’t know where he was working most recently or where he was staying, though she said it may have been with a girlfriend. She also didn’t know who Becton’s passenger was in the car.
Despite his run-ins with the law and his drug arrests, Richmond-Fields said: “He wasn’t on the outs with the family because we’re still family. You’re always stunned when something tragic like this happens to you, and we’re probably going to be stunned for a while.
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“We give our condolences to the families of the young men who were killed in the other vehicle.”
Richmond-Fields said she never heard her brother talk about wanting to be a police officer or heard that he had ever impersonated one. She said the first she heard about that was from reporters.
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