A homeless man who was found beaten to death early Sunday in the East Ukrainian Village neighborhood has been identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Benjamin Soto Ramirez, 67, was found on the sidewalk around 2 a.m. in the 1100 block of North Ashland Avenue with severe head injuries.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy Sunday determined he died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Meanwhile, Chicago police officials said they have been making progress in the case and have developed “good leads.”
Ricardo Soto, who owns a building nearby, said Ramirez was a tenant of the former building in the 1100 block of North Ashland Avenue where the attack occurred, but he had been living on the streets for about the past three years. Soto has no relation to the victim.
Many in the area were familiar with Ramirez, and even those who only knew him in passing were saddened to hear of his death.
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Corey Judkins, 27, has lived in the neighborhood his whole life. He made the initial 911 call that alerted police to Ramirez’s body on the sidewalk.
Judkins said he first walked past the body around 1:30 a.m. when he and a friend were on their way to La Pasadita restaurant on the same block.
He initially did a double take upon seeing something that “looked like liquid” on the wall near Ramirez’s body, which was covered up with a blanket everywhere except his legs, Judkins said.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, Judkins and his friend decided to go back to the scene because “something felt off.”
It was too cold to be sleeping directly on the concrete, Judkins recalls thinking, and he could tell the man was laying face down because of his legs sticking out from underneath the blanket. Ramirez’s bag of cans was also scattered all over the place, which was unusual for someone settling down to sleep for the night.
“The whole thing looked to me like he had been robbed, and the person left his stuff all over,” Judkins said.
Judkins tapped Ramirez on the foot and asked if he was okay, but there was no response. That’s when he called police.
“There is blood all over the wall and the man isn’t responding,” he told the 911 dispatcher.
After calling police, Judkins went to the firehouse across the street and alerted paramedics about the body.
At a press conference Monday on recent violence in the city, Anthony Riccio, chief of the Chicago police organized crime division, hinted at progress in the investigation of Ramirez’s death.
“The details of that one I think we want to hold on just a little bit, so no compromising the investigation, but there are some good leads and a lot of forensic information,” Riccio said.
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