Killer still at large 2 years after fatal Ford City Mall shooting; $10,000 reward offered
The loved ones of a man who was fatally shot in the parking lot of Ford City Mall are still searching for his killer two years later.
When Fabiola Martinez met Rick Perez, she thought her family had become whole. He immediately connected with her young daughter Aliyah.
"An uncommon, unconditional love relationship," Martinez recalled. "They hit it off the bat right away. My daughter loved him. He loved her. He helped me raise her for the years that we were together."
Martinez said she and her daughter thought they'd spend forever with Perez.
"I felt complete. I definitely felt that my little family was complete with him," she said. "I remember that day he told my daughter, 'Hey, let's go to Party City, and let's pick out all the candy you want.'"
In the spring of 2023, Martinez and Perez had booked a vacation to Mexico to baptize Aliyah. He was shot and killed four days before they were supposed to leave.
On that fateful day, Martinez said Perez had called her, worried that two men were following him.
"'They're trying to steal my car,'" she recalled him telling her. "I let him know, 'Okay, call the cops, don't do anything.'"
She said he did call the police, though Perez ended up at the Ford City Mall parking lot where she said the men shot him in the face.
"At the time I had [the] Citizen [app] on my phone, and Citizen notified me of a car crash and Rick's car was in it," she said. "It was a bright blue car, I glanced at it and said, 'It can't be.'"
She rushed to the hospital, but Perez was pronounced dead before doctors could operate.
Now, two years later, she wants more people to hear about his death in case one person knows something that could help.
"I feel like the system failed him," Martinez said. "He called two times; we have phone records. He sent me those phone records and I just feel like they let him down."
Without him, Martinez said her daughter "sees me crying sometimes, and she'll say, 'Don't cry mommy. He wouldn't want that.'"
Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward up to $10,000 for anyone that has information that could lead to an arrest in the case. On Saturday, they will hand out flyers to remind people they are still investigating.
"Maybe one day I'll wake up and I'll get the call. I'll wake up and justice will be served. It won't heal me, but it'll make me feel better," Martinez said.
