A West Rogers Park man fired on a car, fatally wounding a man, after the car passed him then backed up when he said something to the three people inside early Wednesday, prosecutors said.
James Bryant, 40, was ordered held Friday in lieu of $1 million bail in the fatal shooting early Wednesday of Kyra Newell, 26, in the 2300 block of West Arthur Avenue. Bryant is charged with first-degree murder in Newell’s killing and is charged with attempted murder of the 29-year-old driver of the car Newell was in and of a 19-year-old woman who was another passenger, neither of whom suffered injuries in the attack.
Newell and the two others were driving east on Arthur Avenue when they passed Bryant and another person, who were walking together, prosecutors said. Bryant said something, and Newell, who was sitting behind the driver, asked the driver to back up.
When the car backed up, Bryant, who was on the driver’s side of the car, pulled out a gun and fired at least six shots at the car, hitting Newell in the head and causing the driver to crash into a parked car, prosecutors said.
Newell, of the 6500 block of North Ashland Avenue, was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. Thursday at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Two police officers heard the shots, went to the area and talked to the man and woman who had been in the car, prosecutors said. Soon after, other officers in the area saw Bryant getting out of a Hyundai Tucson sport-utility vehicle and then the woman who had been in the car and the two officers first on the scene saw Bryant running west across Western Avenue from nearby Warren Park.
Bryant was arrested and the woman identified him as the man who fired the shots. Bryant also matched a description given by another witness to the shooting, prosecutors said. Bryant’s hands didn’t have any gunshot residue on them, but his clothing did.
One video obtained by police from a nearby business shows the shooting and another shows Bryant getting into the Hyundai, which police found is registered to him, prosecutors said. The video shows Bryant inside the SUV for several minutes, then shows him get out and walk down Western and police arresting him.
When police got a warrant to search the car, they found a .45-caliber gun in the glove box, prosecutors said. The Chicago police crime lab found that the gun matched the six cartridge casings found at the scene. Under a car registered to Bryant’s girlfriend, which was parked nearby, officers found a pair of winter gloves.
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Bryant works security at a Dollar Tree store, his attorney said.
The baiduhai’s Marwa Eltagouri and Steve Schmadeke contributed.