BRONZEVILLE — An 18-year-old man has been charged with murder in the death of a woman on Lake Shore Drive who was allegedly fleeing from a group of men when she was hit by a truck and killed.
Semaj Waters, of Chicago, has been charged with murder, attempted armed robbery and mob action, said Lisa Gordon, a spokeswoman for the State's Attorney's Office.
No one else has been charged.
Pamela Johnson, 32, and her boyfriend, Eugene Jackson, were in Streeterville early Sunday after a night out. About 1:40 a.m., they were walking in the 600 block of North Lake Shore Drive when a group of men began to harass them, police said.
Police said Jackson told officers the group of men had a gun and were going to rob the couple, though police are not sure there was a gun. Andrew Holmes, an anti-violence activist and relative of Johnson, said the couple might have thought they were being robbed.
Johnson and Jackson ran, and police said a surveillance video shows the group of men chasing the couple, even jumping over a barrier to follow them onto Lake Shore Drive.
A pickup truck driving south on the drive hit the couple, killing Johnson and injuring Jackson, police said.
The filing of the charges came as a group of parents — including Waters' father — gathered at Chicago Police headquarters to dispute the police depiction of Johnson's death.
The young men turned themselves in after relatives recognized them in the photos released by police. They were taken into police custody and questioned after police released the surveillance photos of the young men they said might have been responsible for Johnson's death.
Activist Jedidiah Brown spoke on behalf of the families, who said their sons were innocent and offered condolences to Johnson's family. They said Johnson died as a result of a domestic dispute, not any kind of robbery attempt. Brown wants the public to hold off on condemning the young men.
“I ask that the court of public opinion hold their vote. We don’t want to make victims into suspects and vice versa,” Brown said. “The faces of these young men have been plastered all over the news. Their lives can be altered due to potentially false allegations.”
Jerry Brown, the father of Waters, echoes Jedidiah Brown’s sentiments.
“We turned him in because we were afraid of how the system railroads these young men,” Brown said. “This is about something our kids had nothing to do with. We’re not only here for our kids, we’re here for the young sister that died.”
Brown told reporters that police showed up at his home Thursday with a warrant that wasn’t signed.
“They say they have a picture of him holding a gun,” Brown said. “They came in and tore the house up.”
Scott Gordon, Waters’ attorney, also told reporters that Johnson ran onto to Lake Shore Drive due to a domestic dispute between her and her boyfriend Eugene Jackson.
“We’ve heard the alternative story about a domestic disturbance from more than one person,” Gordon said.
A parent of one of the young men involved, who did not want to give her name because her employer doesn’t know about her connection to the incident, told DNAinfo that she became aware of the situation from her son.
“This case is a rush to judgment. He called me and told me ‘Mom, I need you to come get me. They put me on TV for something I didn’t do. Please take me to the police so we can tell them I didn’t do anything,’” the parent said.
The parent said her son and his friends went downtown that night to celebrate his birthday.
“Due to the political climate in the city, they [police] are looking for a scapegoat. My son isn’t going to be that scapegoat,” the parent said. “My son had money. There was no reason for him to be robbing someone.”
Two of the young men, who had been released by police, told reporters they actually stayed behind early Sunday to help the woman until the ambulance and police arrived.
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