Robert Acosta watched in amazement as his neighbor, Enrique Martinez, jogged past his West Lawn house last week with two German shepherds leashed to his waist while he dribbled a soccer ball.
“It was so cool. I mean, who does that? Like, is this guy a juggler?” an amused Acosta thought to himself.
Days later, Acosta, a neighbor whose son was friends with Martinez, was stunned to learn that the jogger he encountered many times for over a decade was the officer slain in a shooting Monday night in Chatham on the South Side.
“I wanted to cry when I heard,” Acosta, 64, said. “It’s just a shame.”
Darion McMillian, 23, of Harvey, appeared Thursday on charges of first-degree murder in the shooting that also killed another man Monday in the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue. McMillian used a handgun equipped with an extended magazine and modified with a switch to fire automatically, police and prosecutors said.
Martinez’s killing shook a community home to multiple police families.
Acosta’s son is a former CPD officer who now works in Berwyn. He got choked up when speaking about the difficulties of watching his son leave and not knowing whether he’d come back home.
“It’s a sad thing … when they leave in the morning,” Acosta said. “You just want to tell him you love him. You may never see him again.”
Another one of Martinez’s neighbors, Luis Otero, worked as an Area 1 detective for over 33 years and almost lost his son, another officer with the Chicago Police Department, when he was shot in the line of duty in 2020 on the West Side.
“It’s a great loss,” Otero, 61, said of Martinez’s slaying. “It’s a tragedy not only to the neighborhood but to the city.”
Otero, who waved to him whenever he saw him running around the block, said the two would occasionally talk about the police department and how the system has changed.
“He was for helping people,” Otero said. “[He] did whatever he had to do to help people.”
Neighbors were glad to see someone charged in Martinez’s slaying but feel more needs to be done through tougher punishments and updated police policies to ensure another death like Martinez’s doesn’t happen.
“As long as you don’t hold people accountable in this city, it’s just going to keep on getting worse,” Otero said.
Martinez lived with his parents and siblings, according to neighbors. His mother is also an avid runner and his brother is with the police academy. Martinez, 26, would have celebrated three years on the job next month.
Acosta witnessed Martinez go from a “scrawny young kid” to a muscular man who kept himself in excellent shape.
“He was always friendly,” Acosta said. “He’s in God’s hands. … He’s in a better place than we are now.”
Contributing: Andy Grimm