A Gulf War veteran working at his godfather’s gas station in central Evanston was killed Monday morning, in what police said was the first slaying at a business in the north suburb in more than a decade.
Investigators speculated that Chicagoan James Pappas, 27, died during a robbery at the Citgo Station/Emerson Pit Stop, 1925 Green Bay Rd.–although police said they do not know what was stolen. Local authorities, with help from the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force, had made no arrests by Monday evening.
Pappas died of blunt trauma, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, but investigators would not elaborate on how he died or the type of object that may have struck him. One family member who spoke to authorities said police told him that Pappas might have been hit with a fire extinguisher.
“He was never scared,” the victim’s brother, Spiro, said Monday of the cashier’s job. “I know he was told to close the bulletproof window and lock the doors, but he said that he knew everyone and that no one would mess with him.”
One man who works nearby said witnesses told him they saw an assailant waving a gun at Pappas. But no gunshots were fired during the crime, which occurred about 6:30 a.m., said Evanston Police Cmdr. Dennis Nilsson.
Pappas, who relatives said had recently moved to a residence near Midway Airport, was found by police inside the station’s cashier booth. He was taken to Evanston Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m.
Zafar Ahmed, the manager of a Mobil gas station across the street, said he looked out the window of his business after hearing screams about 6:30 a.m. He ran across Green Bay Road and was told by a couple standing outside that they had been buying coffee when the assailant entered the store.
The couple did not speak English but gestured to show that the victim had been attacked and that the masked assailant had fled north on Green Bay Road, Ahmed said. He said he looked toward the store’s cashier box, saw the attendant’s face covered with blood and ran outside to call police from a pay phone.
As Ahmed and other neighbors gathered at the Mobil station’s lot in the hours after the slaying Monday, many said it was likely that the assailant surprised Pappas–who, at 5 feet 9 inches and 190 pounds, was well built. Relatives said Pappas had taken the late and early shifts at the station to help his ailing godfather, Gus Hasapis.
“He was pretty big,” said James Kennedy, a part-time worker at both the Mobil and Citgo stations. “If someone said something bad to him, he’d literally throw them out.”
Pappas was born in Chicago, the eldest of four children. He was a golf and tennis enthusiast.
After graduating from Lane Technical High School, Pappas joined the Navy and was assigned to the USS Peoria. He served on the tank-landing ship in the Persian Gulf, Spiro Pappas said.
It was after his Navy service that Pappas returned to Chicago and started to work part time for his godfather, who could not be reached Monday. Pappas had worked at the service station for four years.
The last time a murder occurred at an Evanston business was in October 1987, Nilsson said, when Elizabeth Suh, 55, was found dead in her Dempster Street dry-cleaning store.
