Family of man with Alzheimer's shot, killed after entering wrong home in South Deering demand answers
A family is demanding justice after they say a Harvey man who has Alzheimer's disease was shot and killed this week when he mistakenly went into the wrong residence on the South Side.
Around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Chicago police said they responded to a report of someone shot near 103rd and Luella in the city's South Deering neighborhood.
Upon arrival, they found a man with a gunshot wound to the chest, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The man was later identified as 62-year-old Carmelo Medina of Harvey.
Police said a 33-year-old man said the other person entered their home and charged in his direction, and that's when he told police he fired a gun and struck the man in the chest.
"Él era bueno, no era mala persona. (he was a good man, he wasn't a bad person)," Medina's sister, Estella, told CBS News Chicago.
She, along with Medina's niece, Ana Bahena, and son, Carmen Martinez, spoke about what happened to Carmelo.
"He was just there for everybody, didn't matter who it was, family, friends, just everybody – he would drop everything just to be there for them," Carmen said.
The family said that Carmelo had Alzheimer's disease and had gone missing early Monday morning. They believed he walked a long distance from where he stayed in Harvey, was disoriented, and went into a random residence. The family said Medina's Alzheimer's had led to previous instances of him wandering, but they normally would be able to locate him.
"He was wandering, he didn't know exactly what was going on, he didn't know – he was not in his right mind basically because he had Alzheimer's," Bahena said.
Illinois law protects lawful gun owners who use a firearm to protect themselves from harm from a suspected intruder to their home. Still, Medina's family said his death could have been avoided.
"It didn't get to that point where you have to shoot somebody," Carmen said.
Now the family is juggling raising funds for funeral expenses and trying to seek legal answers for their family member.
"The main thing that we're trying to get, a point is we just want justice," Carmen said.
The family said detectives told them the man who shot Medina had a valid permit for a firearm, and a police scanner from the morning of the shooting said he had a valid FOID card. It's unclear how Medina got into the home.
Chicago police told CBS News Chicago on Wednesday afternoon that there are no new updates in this case. Investigation into the case remains ongoing.