Prosecutors say suspected serial killer Antonio Reyes chose victims at random: A father with his children, shopping for a puppy; a young UPS driver waiting to pick up a friend; a man on his way to a gas station.
But Reyes’ friends were also among his targets, according to the mother of one of his alleged victims and records in a related case.
Other documents describe Reyes as a violent gang member who went by the nickname “Redrum” — murder spelled backward.
He is suspected of asking two friends to kill a witness against him, a hit Reyes allegedly ordered while in juvenile detention.
And in a bizarre twist, another of Reyes’ friends allegedly shot and killed a Chicago police officer after getting into a fight with Reyes’ mother.
Reyes was arrested in 2020 for a murder and a shooting, but police considered him a suspect in several murders — all committed over a nine-month span when he was 16 or 17.
During the next four years, police said they built up other cases — through ballistics and social media messages — and charged Reyes with five more killings.
Did Reyes know any of the victims?
In announcing the new charges last week, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke told reporters that “none of these people had ever met Antonio Reyes before and there’s no reason to suspect Antonio Reyes had any reason to target them.”
But the mother of Damian Duran, one of Reyes’s alleged victims, said her son had been friends with Reyes in the months before the 16-year-old was found shot dead in an alley about a mile from her home in May 2020.
Marlen Rangel said she met Reyes a few weeks before her son was killed, and exchanged furious text messages with Reyes in the hours after Duran’s body was found.
Rangel said she had a bad feeling about Reyes the first time she saw him pull up at her house in the spring of 2020 to pick up Duran. Reyes was the same age as her son, 16, but looked older, she said.
“I ran up to the car and said ‘who the f—- are you?’ Because I need to know who my kids are with,” she recalled. “I told him, ‘I see you, I know what car you drive and I’ve got your license plate.’”
Reyes and Duran hung out a lot during the weeks that followed, and on May 1 a ride-share driver pulled up at Rangel’s house to pick up Duran. Rangel believes Reyes lured her son to his death and sent the ride-share because she knew she closely watched the vehicles that came to her house.
Hours after Duran left in the ride-share, detectives knocked at Rangel’s door, asking about her son’s tattoos and other identifying marks. Panicked, Rangel asked her daughter to reach out to Reyes on Snapchat. Rangel messaged back and forth with Reyes, asking him about her son.
“He said he dropped my son off on 55th Street and I said, ‘I know you’re lying! The detectives were here! My son is dead!’” Rangel said. The last message she received from Reyes was chilling. “He said, ‘That’s why your son is going to rot in hell.’”
Duran’s murder is among the five new murder cases filed against Reyes last month. Rangel said she almost gave up hope that police would solve her son’s case.
“It has been a long time,” she said. “I was glad when they arrested him and put him in jail.”
Six murders in nine months
According to prosecutors, Reyes had killed two men before Duran and would kill three others in the months after that— a total of six murders over nine months.
The killings occurred in the Clearing and Gage Park neighborhoods on the Southwest Side. The first and last attacks occurred several blocks from each other on 59th Street.
In three of the killings, the shots were fired from a passing car. It’s unclear from police reports whether other people were in the car besides the gunman.
In the first murder linked to Reyes, witnesses told police there were two shooters. They fired at Francisco Magana as he walked across West 59th Street near Washtenaw Avenue in March of 2020, according to a police report.
After Magana fell to the ground, one of the shooters walked over to Magana and fired several more shots at the fallen man from point-blank range, stopping only when the second man yelled, “Let’s go! It’s over!” according to the report.
Reyes is the only one to have been charged with Magana’s murder.
A month later, Claudio Cossio was doubled-parked in the 4100 block of South Sacramento, waiting to pick up a friend to play basketball. Reyes allegedly pulled up next to Cossio and opened fire on April 5, killing the 20-year-old UPS worker.
Cossio’s family said neither they nor Cossio knew Reyes.
Duran was killed a month later. Police responding to a ShotSpotter alert found the 16-year-old lying face down in an alley, with gunshot wounds to the torso, neck and head. Witnesses said someone in a gray hooded sweatshirt fired at Duran and ran down an alley.
A month later, Luis Davalos Garcia was double-parked in the 5800 block of South Rockwell Street, waiting for his girlfriend to come out of her house, when Reyes pulled up in a Lincoln MKZ sedan and fired into Davalos Garcia’s car, police say.
Davalos Garcia did not know Reyes, a marketing representative with no criminal background, authorities said.
Prosecutors say the motive had nothing to do with Davalos Garcia. Reyes was “devastated” because his girlfriend broke up with him, according to prosecutors. Minutes before Davalos Garcia was shot, prosecutors said Reyes sent her a message that he was “going to kill a King,” a reference to a gang, and sent a picture of himself holding a gun as he drove near the murder scene.
And just a day apart in November 2020, prosecutors say Reyes killed Jose Martinez and Justin Gonzales in apparently random attacks.
Police reports indicate Reyes pulled up to Martinez’s car in the 330 Block of West 55th Street and fired five shots into the car, killing Martinez, who was taking his three children to pick up a puppy.
The next day, Reyes allegedly gunned down Justin Gonzales, who was in his car waiting to pick up his girlfriend. Reyes also faces attempted murder charges for a shooting that took place two weeks later, when he allegedly opened fire on a 27-year-old man, grazing his scalp.
The victim told police he had never seen Reyes until the day of the shooting, when he noticed the teen following him in a red Jeep and giving the older man dirty looks as he ran errands in Gage Park.
Reyes tied to other killings
Reyes was arrested in December and charged with the murder of Davalos Garcia. But the killing did not stop, authorities say.
Soon after he landed in juvenile detention, Reyes placed a call to his 18-year-old friend, George Reyes, and allegedly told him to “take care of” their friend Sebastian Serrano because Serrano was going to testify against him in the Davalos Garcia murder case, according to charging documents. George and Antonio Reyes are not related, according to prosecutors.
Another friend, 19-year-old Andres Giler, lured Serrano out of his house over text messages and calls, according to prosecutors. Giler was on the phone with Serrano as George Reyes opened fire, prosecutors said.
George Reyes and Giler both have pleaded guilty to murder charges in Serrano’s death. Antonio Reyes faces no charges in connection with the killing.
Rangel lived only a few blocks from Serrano, and knew Serrano also had been friends with Reyes. “They all knew each other,” she said.
Another friend of Reyes has been charged with the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso in 2023.
Reyes’ mother had called 911 to report her “husband” was chasing her with a gun. Vasquez Lasso was among the officers who arrived at her house in the 5200 block of South Spalding. Eighteen-year-old Steven Montano fled the house carrying a gun, and Vasquez Lasso chased the teen toward an elementary school across the street.
As children played on a playground, police said Montano turned back and fired at Vasquez Lasso, who got off a shot that hit Montano in the cheek. As Lasso lay dying, another officer said the wounded Montano got up and began walking toward him, saying “Just kill me.” The officer tazed Montano.
Now 20, Montano has pleaded not guilty to charges in Vasquez Lasso’s murder. Court records describe Reyes’ 37-year-old mother as Montano’s girlfriend. The Sun-Times was unable to reach Reyes’ mother for comment.