A Zion man allegedly stabbed another man to death during a Monday evening argument about drugs in the parking lot of a Zion gas station, authorities said.
Bernardino Giustino, 21, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Nathaniel Lang, according to a news release from Zion police. Giustino was ordered held on $2 million bail Tuesday.
Police said Giustino and Lang, who knew each other, argued about drugs while at the Mobil gas station at 2500 Sheridan Road. Police said Giustino left the gas station, but returned with a knife and confronted Lang.
Zion police had responded about 6:15 p.m. Monday to a report of a person shot, but instead found Lang stabbed in the chest in the parking lot, police said. He was declared dead at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, authorities said.
A Tuesday autopsy confirmed Lang died of a single stab wound that went through his sternum and the right side of his heart, according to Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd, who said the death appears to be a homicide.
Doug Day, who rented a room to Lang from October 2015 to March, described him as quiet and laid-back. Day said Lang ultimately left without warning.
Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Cynthia Vargas said a witness called 911 to report a man in his mid- to late teens with green hair, a white bicycle and a backpack fighting with another man at the gas station. The witness said the man swung his arms and backpack at the other man.
After the fight, the man rode away on the bicycle, and the other man was lying in the parking lot of the gas station, Vargas said. When officers arrived, they found Lang in the parking lot unconscious and not breathing, authorities said.
A canvas of the area led police to a residence in the 3300 block of Colgate Avenue in Zion, where Giustino was arrested at 1:39 a.m. Tuesday, police said. He admitted to changing his clothes and cutting his hair, Vargas added.
A search of the home led to the discovery of the cut hair, a shirt, shoes and the bicycle, authorities said.
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Giustino told investigators the argument was over $60 worth of marijuana that Giustino had agreed to obtain for Lang, police said. He also admitted to swinging his knife at Lang, but did not intend to stab him, Vargas said.
A knife was recovered from a storm drain after another person led police to it, Vargas said. The state’s attorney’s office does not currently intend to press charges against that person.
Giustino’s next court appearance is set for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 16.
Gas station cashier Ali Kahn said the business was also the site of an armed robbery July 3. Zion Deputy Chief Kirk Henderson confirmed that robbery occurred and said it was unrelated to Monday’s stabbing.
Kahn said the business hasn’t had many problems over the 20 years it has been under its current management.
Zion police are also investigating an unrelated shooting that also occurred Monday evening, Henderson said.
A man walked into Vista Medical Center with a gunshot wound, he said, adding the department had received no earlier reports of a shooting. Henderson declined to release any further details as the shooting remains under investigation.
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