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Uptown Rapper Target of Rogers Park Shootings That Killed Two, Police Say

 Markeyo Carr (l.), 17, and Wil Lewis, 28, were unintended targets in two Rogers Park shootings this year.
Markeyo Carr (l.), 17, and Wil Lewis, 28, were unintended targets in two Rogers Park shootings this year.
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EDGEWATER — Shooters who have been gunning for an Uptown rapper ended up killing bystanders Markeyo Carr and Wil Lewis in two Rogers Park attacks this year, police said.

The rapper — who has posted provocative online music videos taunting rival gangs — was not injured in either of the attacks.

"He’s trouble, and someone’s out to get him — that’s for sure," Foster Police District Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said Monday night at a community meeting. "Thank God he doesn't hang around here in the 20th District [Edgewater]. He usually hangs out in the 24th District [Rogers Park] and on the South Side."

In February, the rapper was walking with a group of people outside a McDonald's at 6740 N. Clark St. when a masked gunman opened fire, injuring three teens and killing Markeyo, 17. A police source said at the time the likely target was the rapper.

Then, on July 12, photographer Wil Lewis was gunned down when another shooter opened fire at the rapper, who was walking in the 1300 block of Devon Avenue. Lewis, who had been waiting for a bus, was fatally shot in the back.

The rapper, who did not respond to requests for comment, celebrated his 19th birthday in jail in the time between the shootings. He served about two months of a one-year sentence for unlawful use of a weapon/vehicle, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

He was paroled on June 3.

Five days later, he posted on his rap persona's Facebook page that he was back on the street.

"The individual that they're trying to shoot is a guy that does a lot of stuff on YouTube," 40th Ward Ald. Pat O'Connor said Monday. "And it's a lot of gang-related, provocative things, and he has ticked off a lot of gang members. Because of that provocation, there are people who are trying to kill him. Two people are dead, currently, because they tried to get this guy."

O'Connor praised witnesses of Lewis' murder who took photos and relayed information to police on the scene, who quickly were able to arrest Eric Vaughn, of Uptown.

Vaughn has been charged in the slaying. Prosecutors said he passed the gun to an accomplice, who has not been arrested, telling him, "Wet that T-shirt up," an order to make the intended target bleed.

O'Connor said police were looking for ways to take the target of the shootings off the street, but can't arrest him only for his videos because "he's exercising free speech."

"It's an unfortunate thing," he said. "Clearly he's a magnet for trouble in the area — and it's created, obviously, two deaths."

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