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Suspect Who Killed 3 Family Members Shot Himself During Standoff: Police

By  Kelly Bauer and Alex Nitkin | May 12, 2016 7:46am | Updated on May 12, 2016 3:45pm

 Police Standoff in Englewood
Police Standoff in Englewood
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ROSELAND — A daylong standoff that followed a triple homicide on the South Side ended Thursday afternoon when police entered the house and found the suspect dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said the suspect, identified by police as 29-year-old Kevin Robinson, leaned out a second-floor window around 9 a.m. and fired about 12 shots at the SWAT team that was waiting him out inside a home in the 10300 block of South Union Avenue.

That happened after negotiators briefly spoke with him by phone, which "went nowhere," Chicago Police Deputy Chief Steve Georges said.

When Robinson fired on officers, they returned fire, Johnson said. It was unclear whether any of the officers hit him, he said. 

After firing non-lethal gas into the house, Georges said, police entered the home around 1 p.m. and found him dead. Johnson said he had a gun in his hand and an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

All throughout the morning, Robinson's mother begged her son to come out of the home. 

"I love you. I love you, son. Just please no weapons," the voice, heard by reporters on a speaker, pleaded to the man inside the home around noon Thursday. "No more shooting, Kevin."

Just before 12:30 p.m., gunfire rang out at the scene.

Robinson barricaded himself in his girlfriend's home early Thursday morning, police said, at which point she called the police and left with her children. He was wanted in connection to three homicides that were committed in Englewood late Wednesday night, police said.

At 11:22 p.m. Wednesday, two women and a man were in the 1500 block of West 71st Street when a man they knew showed up, fired shots and ran away, said Officer Ana Pacheco, a Police Department spokeswoman.

The victims were identified as Makeesha Starks, 26; Kiara Kinard, 26 and Jerome Wright, 50, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. 

Starks, who lived at the 71st Street address, died from a gunshot wound to the head after being taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in critical condition, officials said. Wright died from multiple gunshot wounds. 

Wright worked as a traffic control aide at the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, according to his Facebook page and department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton.

Police said the women were sisters, and one of them was the mother of Robinson's child. Wright was the father of Starks and Kinard, police said. 

Makeesha Starks. [Facebook]

Shortly after the standoff, Robinson's sister, Kedra Robinson, denied that he had killed anyone.

"He was trying to surrender, but they wouldn't let him," she told reporters, crying. "My brother just got murdered by the police."

Johnson, however, reaffirmed that Kevin Robinson was behind all three Wednesday night murders, adding that he had a long list of prior convictions, including attempted murder.

"As I've said before, we cannot arrest our way out of this issue," Johnson said, invoking his continued push for harsher penalties for violent crimes.

Outside the home on Union Avenue Thursday, police cars blocked the streets. A crowd gathered nearby, people talking and trying to figure out what happened. They shared photos of the victims from Englewood.

"This is life every day for us," one man called.

"I ain't never seen this block packed like this before," one woman said, eliciting laughter from a few in the crowd.

N. Cole, who has lived in the area for more than a decade, said such incidents were normal in the area. Cole is "involved" with the community, he said, and he joined the crowd outside the standoff because he wanted to see how police were reacting to the man inside the home.

Crime is common and the neighborhood is in need of services from the city and state that will help black men and women find jobs, Cole said.

"The violence rate will begin to go down" with workshops and services, Cole said.

For now, Cole said he fears the oncoming summer, when shootings and homicides typically spike throughout the city.

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