Joliet police on Monday were investigating the possibility that a weekend slaying might be connected to a feud that has claimed the lives of three other people in the last two years.
Marcus Hollins, 23, was fatally shot early Saturday as he sat in his car in the 400 block of Strong Avenue, police said. His girlfriend, Denise Jones, was injured.
Police said they were checking a possible connection between Hollins and people involved in the feud, which may have started over stolen tire rims and escalated into the tit-for-tat killings of David Woods Sr. and Ronald Guy. Cosandra Moland, 29, was a bystander killed in the crossfire during a feud-related incident in May, police said.
“We are looking into that possibility, but at this point we haven’t made any strong connections,” Joliet Police Cmdr. Charles Stein said.
Hollins and Jones were in a black Oldsmobile parked in a driveway of the residential neighborhood just after 1 a.m. Saturday when a man wearing a black hooded jacket approached and sprayed the vehicle with bullets, Stein said.
As the gunman opened fire, Hollins threw the car into reverse, backing up in a semi-circle and crashing into a neighbor’s tree, Stein said. Jones apparently climbed over Hollins’ body to escape after the passenger side was caved in by the crash.
Though police had received information about a possible connection to the feud, they were not discounting other motives, Stein said. There are no suspects, he added.
“We understand he was friends with some of the people involved in those earlier [killings],” Stein said. “But Joliet is a small town where people know each other.”
The feud, the origins of which remain murky, began in the fall of 2002, Stein said. Some involved have said the fighting started over a girl. Others have said it involved the Joliet drug trade.
The trial of the suspect in the death of Moland, Regis Woods, who is the nephew of the slain David Woods Sr., is scheduled to begin this week, according to the Will County clerk’s office.
