A night-shift clerk at the Wolf Road Shell station in unincorporated Orland Township was found shot to death early Wednesday, marking the third south suburban fatal shooting in three days.
Robert Collins, 41, of the 10300 block of South Barnard Drive in Chicago Ridge, had been shot once in the head about 4 a.m., according to Cook County Sheriff’s Police spokeswoman Penny Mateck.
A day manager and delivery person arriving at the scene nearly an hour later found Collins’ body behind the counter of the station at 14301 S. Wolf Rd., she said. There were no signs of a robbery, although employees were conducting an inventory Wednesday to be sure.
“He was a great guy. He had a big heart,” said his brother Don Becknell, who added that he did not know of anyone with a reason to kill his brother.
In another shooting, Markham resident Roderick Jordan, 23, was killed Tuesday evening in the driveway of his home in the 16100 block of South Hermitage Avenue. He was pronounced dead on arrival at South Suburban Hospital. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was gunshot wounds.
According to his father, Thomas, Roderick Jordan had borrowed money and was going out with his sister and two friends just after 6:30 p.m.
“All of a sudden, I heard three shots fired,” said Thomas Jordan. “Within five minutes, everything went down.”
Although he was inside the home at the time and did not see the shooting, the father gave this account of the shooting:
Roderick Jordan heard the first shots, saw two armed men running in his direction from down the block and called out to them. When Roderick Jordan turned his back to them, one of them shot him.
Markham Police Sgt. Eric Lymore said Wednesday that police had no motive in the slaying of Roderick Jordan, who was unemployed after being laid off from a job at a steel plant, according to a family member.
Lymore said police were interviewing several neighbors who were at the scene when they arrived. They said they had a suspect Wednesday afternoon, but no one had been taken into custody.
In Crestwood, police were searching Wednesday for a suspect or suspects in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Darwin Mendez, of the 7100 block of South Christiana Avenue in Chicago.
The teen’s body was found Monday morning in the street at 4604 W. 137th St., a Crestwood industrial park area that was all but deserted over the weekend, according to Crestwood Police Chief John Hefley. He said employees of a nearby company told police they saw Mendez as they drove to work.
Mendez died of gunshot wounds, according to a medical examiner’s spokeswoman.
Hefley said police were following up some “pretty solid” leads.
