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CPS Employee Shot In Head Steps From School Where He Worked

By Stephanie Lulay | January 10, 2017 12:00pm | Updated on January 10, 2017 12:47pm
 Jason
Jason "Jay" Goodfriend, 31, was found shot to death near the University Village school where he worked Saturday.
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UNIVERSITY VILLAGE — An employee at a Chicago Public Schools contract school was shot to death steps from the University Village school where he worked, his mother confirmed Tuesday. 

At 9:50 a.m. Saturday, police found 31-year-old Jason Goodfriend in a vehicle in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street after responding to a call of a man slumped over in a running vehicle. The man had been shot in his head, police said.

The shooting occurred about a block away from 12th District Police Station on the Near West Side. 

Goodfriend, whose friends called him Jay, was the director of finance and operations at Chicago Tech Academy High School, a CPS contract school at 1301 W. 14th St. in University Village, his mother confirmed. 

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A Humboldt Park resident and graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jay Goodfriend was slated to start graduate school at UIC this week. 

In an emotional post on Facebook, his mother wrote that her only child was the sole person killed over the weekend in the "gun frenzy in Chicago." 

"People will be relieved to think, 'oh, a light weekend. Only one person died.' But that one person was my son," she wrote. "My heart. My life." 

A Wheaton native and "incredible" drummer,  Jay was "intelligent, funny and talented," his mother wrote. Jay put his talents to use in the marching band, drum line, jazz band and show choir band at Wheaton Warrenville South High School and participated in a number of ensembles in college, his mother wrote. 

Friends on Facebook called him a "mentor" and "role model" who "influenced a generation of drummers." 

"Music was hugely important to him," his mother said. He was loyal and generous to his friends. 

"Every day of the past thirty one years of my life has been dedicated to taking care of, thinking about, loving, guiding, advising, and, yes, a little yelling at, my son. I don't know who else to be anymore," she wrote. "Jay, I love you so, so much." 

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Kaloyan Slavchev launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the Goodfriend family cope with their loss. With a goal of raising $10,000, the campaign has raised more than $1,400 as of early Tuesday afternoon. 

"Jay has touched the lives of many people, and will forever be remembered as a genuine, honest and sincere gentleman," Slavchev wrote. "Another innocent soul is taken way too soon." 

Area Central detectives are investigating the homicide.

A CPS employee was also shot and killed outside an Austin elementary school in June. 

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