Police have arrested and charged a 20-year-old man with a double homicide in Chicago’s Chinatown, NBC Chicago reported.
Chicago police said the man, Alvin Thomas of South Side, was identified as the individual who shot two men in a parking lot during a robbery around 2 a.m. on Sunday.
The two men were in a car with a 44-year-old woman at the corner of Tan Court and Wells Street, where Thomas attempted to rob them, WGN9 said. The woman relinquished her cell phone, while Bian and Xiong resisted and were then shot in the head, police reported.
The resulting gunshots were heard by nearby police, and there was surveillance footage of a man running, according to CBS Chicago. Thomas was arrested shortly afterwards, and his gun was recovered at the scene. He is being charged with two felony counts of first-degree murder.
NBC’s Dick Johnson called the incident “the first murders of Chinese residents in 10 years.” A crowd gathered afterwards at a community safety meeting to grieve.
Chris Huang, a resident who knew the two victims as “hardworking fathers,” described his emotions as “devastating, angry, just terrible.” Residents say that the two men — Hua Yi Bian, 36, and Wei Zhong Xiong, 38 — were “long-time friends.”
“People in Chinatown are coming together. We want to find a solution,” Tony Hu, a local chef, told ABC 7. “We want to stop violence. We can’t see this happening anymore.”
Police have increased patrols in the neighborhood, NBC 5 Chicago reported.
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