COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Authorities believe they've caught the man who shot and killed a 21-year-old woman who had spent the evening attending a memorial service for a friend.
Daysha Wright was a passenger in a car in the 2100 block of West Maypole Avenue when the killer jumped out in the street and began firing shots just after midnight on March 9 — fatally striking Wright in her back.
Authorities have identified the shooter as 21-year-old Travion Lockett. He was arrested on a warrant this week and charged with first-degree murder.
According to prosecutors, Wright spent the evening she was killed at a Near West Side memorial for a friend who had established a youth center in the area. Wright and a man left in the man's car shortly after midnight on March 9.
As the pair headed down Maypole, the driver spotted Lockett on the street wearing a black hoodie, Assistant State's Attorney Matthew Howroyd said during a bond hearing Friday.
The driver knew Lockett from the neighborhood, prosecutors said, and was worried there might be trouble. He allegedly went back to the memorial to warn others before once again driving down Maypole.
At that point, Lockett stepped out from between two cars, and the driver hit the gas, Howroyd said.
Lockett fired several shots at the car as it sped away, and the driver soon heard Wright "choking and gargling on her blood," Howroyd said. The woman had been shot in her back and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Multiple witnesses identified Lockett as the shooter, according to prosecutors.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on March 17, and Lockett was picked up in Milwaukee on Thursday.
Lockett, of the 2200 block of West Maypole Avenue, is charged with first-degree murder. Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. on Friday ordered him held without bail.
After the shooting, neighbors were alarmed that violence had reached their block, which sits between a community center and a small playground.
"There have been issues with crowding around here, but this kind of thing doesn't happen," said Sherita Butler, who lives on the block and works at the community center. "We don't do murder in this neighborhood."
"It's just senseless — you've got kids playing around here 10 feet away from where it happened," she continued. "I don't want to have to tell my children about this now. They understand death, but not when it's happening right in front of them."
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