Jerry Lewis would give anyone the shirt off his back. Born and raised on the West Side, Lewis loved everyone around him, didn’t believe in violence and dedicated himself to giving back, particularly to the community he grew up in, his family said.
“(He was) really trying to change the neighborhood,” his son Zach Lewis told the Tribune the day after his father was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in the city’s Near West Side. “You wouldn’t expect his own neighborhood to turn on him.”
Jerry Lewis, 67, was shot just a few blocks west of the United Center, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A longtime developer and contractor with business offices near the sports venue, Lewis was walking between his offices when the shooting unfolded at around 12:50 p.m., his family and police said.
He was shot in the head and transported to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:17 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.
Two people were taken into custody shortly after the shooting and were still being questioned by Belmont area detectives late Wednesday, according to a police spokesperson.
Zach Lewis said he last saw his dad the night before the shooting. He was on a fishing trip when he got a call from his uncle telling him he needed to speak with a detective. “It doesn’t feel real,” he said.
Cops: Man, 67, fatally shot on city’s Near West Side, two in custody
Zach Lewis said he grew up inspired by his dad, remembering him as someone who sought to make a difference and reinvest in the West Side.
After playing baseball in college and a short stint in the minors, Jerry Lewis started his own business to help other aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those who had been incarcerated or in gangs, to launch their own companies, his son said.
Lewis met his wife, a teacher, through one of his older cousins and they were married for 40 years. “My mom said that she wanted to meet a great man,” Zach Lewis said.
With Zach Lewis, their only child, they settled in the south suburbs.
But Jerry Lewis never lost sight of his commitment to his community. In recent years, Jerry Lewis had been involved in the 1901 Project, the $7 billion development plan to remake the Near West Side neighborhood near the United Center.
He was particularly invested in ensuring minority-owned businesses had an opportunity to gain access to the 1901 Project, according to Traci Quinn, founder and CEO of Pink Hats Construction & Development Group, a women-centered construction firm.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve worked very, very hard in the 27th Ward to bring African-American business to large developments,” Jerry Lewis told the city’s Community Development Commission in May 2024.
Jerry Lewis was the executive director of the 1901 Community Implementation Committee, which helps coordinate project updates, community engagement and leadership connections associated with the 1901 Project, according to the committee’s website. As executive director, Jerry Lewis oversaw “community-driven initiatives and long-term development strategies,” per an online biography written about him before he spoke at a local industry professional meeting last month.
He also led a professional training program within the committee, the online bio said. Jerry Lewis recently started holding mentorship classes for businesses like Quinn’s with the hope of giving them the skillset to succeed in the 1901 Project, Quinn said. Quinn was on her way to one of those classes on Tuesday when she heard about the shooting. She rushed to her mentor’s office, saw the police tape and “cried and cried and cried,” she said.
Quinn said her mentor had a “heart for people.” She vowed to carry on his legacy. So did his son.
Zach Lewis remembered going on long fishing trips with his father and listening as he recounted his goals and dreams. Along the way, Zach Lewis said, he grew to share those same aspirations.
“The legacy that he left is so great,” he said, “I have no choice but to follow behind it.”
As he looks toward carrying on his dad’s work, Zach Lewis urged what his dad had always fought for: change.
“We need to put the guns down and give everybody a chance,” he said. “And when somebody does make it out of the neighborhood, they should be able to come back to the neighborhood and make it better. We have to change the system.”
The Tribune’s William Lee contributed.
