A South Chicago man was ordered detained Tuesday in connection with the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man in River North, whom defense attorneys claimed had previously shot him.
Judge John Hock approved the authorities’ petition to hold Obbie Sanders during a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Sanders, 49, was charged with a single count of first-degree murder along with seven other traffic-related misdemeanors and citations connected with a police pursuit that occurred after the shooting Saturday near the Cabrini-Green rowhouses in the 800 block of North Cambridge Avenue.
Killed was Darrin Carter, 46, of Chicago, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The shooting happened shortly before 10 a.m., ASA Mike Pekara said.
Just before 10 a.m., surveillance video in the area of 849 N. Cambridge Ave. captured Sanders arriving and parking in the area and approaching the victim’s stopped car before he pulled an object from his waistband and fired a gun multiple times at the Carter’s car, according to assistant state’s attorney Mike Pekara.
Carter then sped off, but was found by police about a half block away, Pekara said. Carter was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Sanders got back in his car and was seen on video leaving the area, Pekara said. His car was followed to Michigan Avenue after exiting DuSable Lake Shore Drive, where multiple police squad cars attempted to stop Sanders with their lights and sirens on. Sanders disregarded the police and kept driving onto Upper Wacker before crashing into several vehicles.
He then continued to flee from police, but his car sustained tire damage that caused Sanders to crash into a cement barrier before he was taken into custody, Pekara said.
The two men knew one another from when they were younger, Pekara said, but gave no other indication as to what led to the shooting. Sanders’ private attorney argued Sanders acted in self-defense because Carter had once shot Sanders.
As he made his ruling, Hock said the shooting happened “in a very brazen, public way.”
“This is the greatest threat somebody can pose, taking a firearm and shooting it at somebody into a car after walking up to it and murdering the person, shooting up until they’re dead,” Hock said. “That is as dangerous as somebody can be, actually killing and exterminating another human being’s life.”
Illinois Appellate Court records state that Carter was a longtime drug dealer in the Cabrini-Green rowhouses and was previously shot in the neighborhood in 2007.
Sanders himself has been shot several times, too, according to police records. In his most recent arrest report, a Chicago police officer noted that Sanders still walks with leg braces because of residual damage caused by previous gunshot wounds.
Sanders has been convicted in multiple narcotics and weapons cases over the last three decades, and he’s spent several years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to court records. He was charged in 2011 with being an armed habitual criminal. During sentencing, the judge in that case remarked of Sanders: “Certainly, he has been engaged in and the victim of violent acts more than anybody I’ve ever encountered.”
Sanders is set to appear in court next on July 23.
Tribune reporter Sam Charles contributed to this report.