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Man Shot and Killed Woman at His Birthday Party, Victim's Family Says

By  Emily Morris and Erin Meyer | September 12, 2013 7:42am | Updated on September 12, 2013 1:29pm

 Tyrese Orr, 36, was charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Michelle Gregory in April 2012.
Tyrese Orr, 36, was charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Michelle Gregory in April 2012.
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Chicago Police Department, Family

CHICAGO — A Pilsen man was ordered held without bail Thursday after being charged in the 2012 murder of a woman at a birthday party in North Lawndale.

Police said Tyrese Orr, 36, shot 21-year-old Michelle Gregory in the 3900 block of West 19th Street after an argument about 4:30 a.m. on April 14, 2012. He was charged with first-degree murder.

Orr killed Gregory at his birthday party, said Gregory's mother, Stacey Lowe-Lewis. Gregory had just met Orr through a colleague, Lowe-Lewis said.

Before she was gunned down, Gregory had been trying to call her father, Lowe-Lewis told DNAinfo Chicago last year. She said Orr thought Gregory was trying to bring someone to the party who would threaten him.

At Orr's bond hearing Thursday, prosecutors said Gregory had never met him, and knew Orr only as "Money."

Gregory had been trying to avoid someone at the party who started to flirt with her, prosecutors said, and so she called her family and started to leave with two of her friends.

Orr accused Gregory of planning to "bring some people into his 'hood," before shooting her three times, prosecutors said. 

He then turned to her friends and told them: "If you don't get out of here you will end up dead like your friend," according to prosecutors.

Gregory was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 5:02 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Gregory had attended Harold Washington College after graduating from Curie Metro High School and wanted to enlist in the Navy, Lowe-Lewis said.

Though Lowe-Lewis said she is "somewhat elated" that someone might be brought to justice for killing her daughter, "It's not going to bring my baby back."

"My daughter will never get to live or get the chance to live out her dreams," she said.

A warrant was put out for his arrest, Orr's public defender said. Police said Orr turned himself in and was charged after being identified in a series of lineups during the investigation.

Judge Israel Desierto ordered him held without bail Thursday afternoon.