Barbara Deer and her son Kaleb died in a murder-suicide, officials said, sending shockwaves through Chicago political circles as the city’s West Side laments the losses in one of its most prominent families.
Their deaths were discovered late Tuesday after a family friend called police to the Deer home when Kaleb’s twin brother, Kanaan, reported a notification on his Apple Watch that his mother had taken a hard fall. Late Wednesday, the Cook County Medical Examiner ruled the deaths of Barbara and Kaleb a homicide and suicide, respectively.
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The deaths came as a shock to the community.
Earlier this week, Barbara Deer sent a message to a text chain inviting neighbors to go on a walk together. Friends and neighbors say that’s who Barbara Deer was: an organizer who cared deeply about her community in Garfield Park, advocated for Juneteenth to be celebrated widely and doted on her three children and husband, Dennis, before he died in 2024, as they advocated for mental health care.
“Barbara Deer was a great person, a great wife, a great mother, (and a) great advocate for our community,” lifelong West Sider Angela Sanders said outside the Deer family home Wednesday evening as two dozen community members began to gather for the walk Deer had organized. Despite their grief, neighbors still saw the walk through, using the gathering as a chance to honor their friend.
“We’re continuing to let her live on through us, in our steps,” said North Lawndale resident Karen Castleberry, who knew the Deer family for years, adding that she last saw Barbara Deer at church on Sunday.
Castleberry said that while she had been downhearted since hearing the news of the deaths on Tuesday, gathering with her community helped ease the pain.
“We love you, Barbara,” a neighbor called out.
Barbara was remembered as a beloved partner to Dennis, who for years served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and a community center in North Lawndale that bears his name. The pair focused on initiatives surrounding mental health and healthy eating, as well as establishing Juneteenth commemorations. Their son, Kaleb, worked at the Dr. Dennis Deer Community Justice Center as part of the Lawndale Christian Legal Center and promised to continue the family legacy in public service.
But the Deer family’s tragic turn underscores the challenges many people are fighting. U.S. Rep. Danny Davis has known the family for decades and said he had heard mention of the son’s “depression” after his father’s death. Speaking before the official ruling, Davis said “no matter the circumstances,” it’s a tragedy.
“It is devastating. It is so tragic and so unfortunate. It’s an indication that we need to spend much more time, much more money, much more effort, dealing with behavioral health issues and the advent of trauma,” Davis said. “We need to have available resources to try and understand it, try and deal more effectively with it. I think what we’ve just experienced suggests that there are gaps in what we do, there are things we just don’t understand.”
After news broke of their passing, the accolades for the Deer family began pouring in.
“They’re true West Siders, deeply, deeply connected to community and faith,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday, remembering Dennis Deer as one of the nicest politicians he’d ever worked with when they were both on the county board. Barbara, he said, gave “that same level of love and intensity” at Chicago Public Schools, where she worked for decades.
“I’ve experienced a great deal of sorrow as a result of this tragedy,” Johnson said. “I know sometimes I might come across, at times, a little dug in, because I know when these issues are unaddressed and families do not have the support that they need, it causes tragedy.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle called their deaths a “heartbreaking and unimaginable loss.”
“The Deer family has long been well known in the community for their compassion and steadfast commitment to others,” Preckwinkle said. “Their presence and service touched countless lives. There are no words that can make sense of such pain, but I hope the surviving family members find strength in the love that surrounds them.”
According to a police report obtained by the Tribune, a family friend first called police to the Deer home when Kaleb’s twin brother, Kanaan, called about a notification on his Apple Watch that his mother had taken a hard fall.
A family friend, who lives nearby, went to the house but couldn’t open the front door, which was deadbolted, the report said.
The family dog and their car were both outside, and the dog had been out for some time barking, according to the report. The family’s friend texted both Barbara and Kaleb Deer but received no response, and eventually called police.
After Chicago Fire Department workers entered the house, officers found Barbara and Kaleb on the floor in a pool of blood, the report said. A black handgun was on the floor near Kaleb Deer’s hand, according to the report.
Not long after the news of the family’s deaths became public, neighbor Karen Archer left a lovingly arranged bouquet of tulips on the family’s front porch.
“In loving memory of our neighbors,” a note with the flowers read. “Rest in heavenly peace. Sincerely, Block D.”
Karen Archer told the Tribune she has been a close friend and neighbor to the Deer family for 20 years. The families’ kids grew up together, playing basketball in the alley, she said.
“I’m so numb, I don’t know what to do,” Archer told the Tribune Wednesday. “His dad, Dennis Deer … had a mental health foundation, so for this to come boomerang back, only for his wife and child to succumb to death this way, it’s just devastating.”
Barbara Deer was a speech pathologist for nearly 20 years with Chicago Public Schools and in private practice, according to her LinkedIn page. She most recently worked as the CEO for the health care consulting firm Metamorphosis Health.
She became the executive director of Juneteenth Illinois in 2023, per her LinkedIn.
According to a biography of her on the website of Juneteenth Illinois, Barbara Deer was part of the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council Arts and Culture Committee, kept a blog about topics ranging from cult hair to vegetarianism and enjoyed sewing.
Her husband and high school sweetheart, Dennis Deer, was a therapist with a Ph.D. in Christian psychology. He ran a drug treatment and counseling center in Lawndale before joining the Cook County Board in 2017. Dennis Deer died in June 2024 at age 51 following a double lung transplant due to a genetic condition in which his chest organs were backward.
After her husband’s death, Barbara Deer applied to be appointed to fill out his term on the county board but party officials chose former Ald. Michael Scott Jr. instead.
Commissioner Michael Scott said amid the appointment process, he “marveled” at Barbara Deer’s ability to not only stay positive, but harness her pain to spread the message about the importance of personal health.
“In addition to Commissioner Deer and all the great work that he did, his entire family was rooted in service and his wife carried on many of the ideals that he championed,” Scott said. “When I think about the family, I think about God first, family second, and community third.”
He said Barbara was a proud newly minted grandmother and “whip smart.”
Barbara and Dennis “had the means to move out of the community a long time ago, but stayed and wanted to make sure that they were pouring back into the community,” Scott continued, and the two had “the most amazing love story… they were always talking about their love and how much they revered each other.”
Kaleb Deer started working at the justice center named in honor of his father last fall, according to his Facebook page. In a post about his first day, Deer remarked that he was “excited to apply psychology and business background to the center’s mission of second chances” and said his first day had brought back memories of his dad.
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“It feels good to be in a place that thrives off doing the work in the community and for the community to better it,” he wrote. “I’m proud to continue that work with my own touch.”
In a Facebook post that also tagged his mother the day after Dennis Deer’s death, Kaleb Deer pledged to keep his legacy alive.
“I love you forever,” he wrote. “You came in this world and hit the ground running from birth.”
Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry said he got close with the twins after Dennis’ death.
“They call me ‘Unc,’ I call them nephew,” he said.
He said he last heard from Kaleb on March 28, who called to check on him after losing a niece at age 33. He said Kaleb called him on the day the family held her celebration of life.
“He was very quiet, very reflective, but just a wonderful, wonderful person and I grew to love both he and his brother and his sister,” he said.
He said he and others involved in Juneteenth Illinois will carry on the organization’s legacy, which includes a scholarship fund.
State Rep. LaShawn Ford, a close family friend, said that family deaths are “a big, big devastating loss for us.”
“This is what I would call a state of emergency” for local government leaders to make mental and behavioral health more accessible in neighborhoods like Lawndale, Ford continued, describing the shooting as a “cry for help.”
Ford remembered Barbara as “100 percent family, love for her children, love for her community, a builder for the West Side and a pioneer for Juneteenth in the state of Illinois.”
Dennis Deer was Kaleb’s “rock” and “the one that he turned to all the time,” Ford said. Kaleb was in the process of receiving his master’s degree, he added.
“He’s an artist and he wanted to have his brand out there,” Ford said. “He was a business person and a strong family man.”
Their deaths were a shock because of the emphasis both parents put on mental health, he said.
“So many people right now, whether we know it or not, are struggling with mental and behavioral health challenges and there’s nowhere to turn for some people. Even when you have experts within your household, our communities have to do better — government has to do better — so that people have access to health care.”
Tribune reporter Tess Kenny contributed to this report.