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Man Charged With Lakeview Robbery and Murder Held Without Bail

By Linze Rice | May 30, 2015 9:31am | Updated on June 1, 2015 8:47am
 Kevin O. O'Malley (l.) was shot to death early Saturday in Lakeview, authorities said.
Kevin O. O'Malley (l.) was shot to death early Saturday in Lakeview, authorities said.
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Facebook/Kevin O'Malley

LAKEVIEW — A man accused of robbing and killing a suburban Palos Park man in Lakeview early Saturday was held without bond Sunday.

Kristopher Pitts, 22, was charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm Saturday night.

He was accused of killing Kevin O'Malley, 25, who was shot dead during a 2 a.m. Saturday robbery in the 900 block of West Oakdale Avenue, authorities said. Police said Pitts shot O'Malley in the chest and ran off.

The Sun-Times reported Sunday that Pitts was held without bail and would appear in court Monday. Prosecutors Sunday said that Pitts took O'Malley cellphone and cash. O'Malley then chased Pitts, and the two fought before Pitts pulled out a small silver revolver and shot O'Malley twice in his chest, the Sun-Times reported.

Pitts, of the 1100 block of N. Central Park Ave. in Humboldt Park, was arrested soon after the shooting and questioned throughout the day Saturday.

Kristopher Pitts, 22, is charged with murder.

O'Malley lives in suburban Palos Park, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. Sources told DNAinfo Chicago that he had an apartment in Lakeview, close to the crime scene.

Police found O'Malley unresponsive when they arrived on the scene, said Officer Stacey Cooper, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.

An employee who works near the scene and asked to remain anonymous said the incident was captured on security footage. Detectives who came by to review the tape discovered that the suspect climbed onto a roof rather than run down the street.

Police found Kevin O'Malley's body in the 900 block of West Oakdale early Saturday morning. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]

Trey Fenton, 23, who lives in a ground-level apartment directly next to where the victim is believed to have been discovered by police in Lakeview, said, "Are you f------ kidding me?! I was just jumped in that alley two weeks ago!" when he was informed about the crime.

Fenton said that while he and his girlfriend Georgia Brey, 20, usually go out Friday nights in their neighborhood, the couple decided to spend a rare night in due to Brey being sick.

Brey said that she left work early that day to come home and rest, but if she hadn't, she would have been passing the crime scene around the time it occurred.

"I'm amazed; that was scary," she said. "I feel bad. It's just really creepy. That could have been me."

Fenton said several weeks ago when he was coming home from a nearby bar. As he crossed North Sheffield Avenue and headed East onto George Street, a car with two women in it pulled in front of him, blocking his way, he said.

One of the women rolled down her car window and asked if he "wanted to smoke a blunt" — an offer Fenton said he declined.

Fenton said he continued to walk toward his home, and the women followed him in their car, hitting him. As he lay on the ground semi-conscious, Fenton said the women insulted him, picked his pockets, took his cellphone and wallet and fled.

Now, he said he wonders if last night's "outrageous" incident is related to his own mugging, which he reported to police at the time.

Trey Fenton, 23, looks out the window from his apartment at the scene where the body of Kevin O'Malley was discovered early Saturday morning with two fatal shots to his chest. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]

"For someone to die, that's not OK," Brey said, explaining that although late-night drunken brawls have been known to happen in the area, a homicide was unusual for her block.

"You see it on TV, and it just seems so far away, you never pay attention to that sort of thing until it happens to you," she said.

Claire Potter, who lives at Sheffield and Oakdale avenues, said she's lived in the neighborhood for the last two years and was surprised to hear that fatal shooting had happened in her own backyard.

"I live in this neighborhood because this stuff isn't supposed to happen," Potter said. "Hopefully, people will stop propping the door [to my building] open now."

She said her building has a back courtyard, which runs along the alley where the slaying occured. There, she said, it's become a habit of her neighbors to leave the door slightly ajar for easier access. 

"I'm a little anxious about it now," she said.

Employees at Kirkwood Bar and Grill, 2934 N. Sheffield Ave., said while they didn't hear the shots because of the noise from the bar, they were told about the shooting by people working the door last night who saw police cars swarm the area. 

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