Relatives and friends of the two men who were shot clustered around all sides of the crime scene as police cordoned off about a block of 44th Street between Wolcott and Wood with yellow and red tape.
Some cried and hugged each other.
Some, angry that their friend’s body lay in the middle of the sidewalk, shouted curse words at nearby officers. Some yelled threats. Some threw empty bottles at police squad cars.
“It hurts to see him lie there,” a woman said as she stood next to the crime scene near laura Elizondo. “He just came home.”
Martinez, friends said, just recently returned after being locked up in jail. According to public records, he had been sentenced in 2012 to 6 years in prison on a firearms violation and was released on parole in March. He was trying to stay on the right path, away from the streets, and focus on his 12-year-old daughter, a friend said.
“He had a past,” said a man who described Martinez as a close friend. “But we all have a past … He was a good person.”
He said he looked up to Martinez, who he had seen a couple of days earlier with his daughter.
“He was the type of guy who would carry a tire for you and help you take a shirt off your back,” said the man, who did not want to be identified.
Martinez and another man were standing on the corner of the intersection of 44th and Honore streets when a red SUV and a light-colored sedan pulled up next to them and someone inside both cars fired gunshots, according to police, who were citing preliminary information.
Nearby neighbors said they heard between 10 and 20 gunshots on the block.
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The area where the shooting happened is known as Halo City, a territory populated by members of the Latin Saints gang police say. The Back of the Yards neighborhood overall saw 14 homicides over the past year, according to a Tribune database. Residents say it’s common to hear gunshots in the neighborhood, but some of them also say that they feel gangs protect their neighborhood.