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After Murder of Loyola Student, a Daily Ritual for Crime Scene Neighbors

By Benjamin Woodard | December 11, 2014 5:41am
 Every day, resident Jonathan Meyer, 42, and his girlfriend, Julia Antonick, 33, light candles at the corner where Mutahir Rauf was killed.
Every day, resident Jonathan Meyer, 42, and his girlfriend, Julia Antonick, 33, light candles at the corner where Mutahir Rauf was killed.
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DNAinfo/Benjamin Woodard

ROGERS PARK — Every day this week, Jonathan Meyer and his girlfriend, Julia Antonick, walk to the corner just below the window of their first-floor apartment to light candles.

On Friday night, Loyola pre-med student Mutahir Rauf was shot to death there, and the sidewalk has transformed from a police crime scene on that night and on Saturday to a memorial honoring the life of a 23-year-old who was far too young to die.

Meyer, 42, and Antonick, 33, didn't know Rauf, but from their apartment have seen neighbors and mourners pay their respects.

"It's just been nice to see people gathering," Meyer said Wednesday, after he used a lighter to ignite the water-logged wicks of the candles, as he's done every day since the robbery and murder.

He said he and his girlfriend weren't home when the shooting happened. They came back to their apartment in the 1200 block of West Albion Avenue shortly after.

Rauf's brother, Mokaram, had said he too quietly visited the scene of the slaying on Monday, a day before Loyola University hosted a public memorial on campus.

"I saw people from the neighborhood walking up and paying their respects," he had said. "And that means a lot."

Flowers and mementos also were placed at the scene, including weightlifting gloves and whey protein powder, signs of Rauf's love for fitness.

A note, too, had been taped to the wall alongside a pod of white hydrangea flowers — directly above where Rauf's lifeless body had been covered with a white sheet days before.

"Mutahir, You are remembered, thought of, and loved," the note read. It was signed: "Your RP neighbors," using the common abbreviation for Rogers Park.

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