E-mail this story Printer-friendly format Search archives Photo Anthony Stuckey July 31, 2002 Jack Moore, in an undated photo. July 31, 2002

Calling them "cowardly thugs," Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard today vowed to catch members of an angry mob that pulled two men out of a van Tuesday night and beat them to death after their vehicle crashed into the front steps of a South Side building, injuring three women.

"Chicago and its residents and the Chicago Police Department will not tolerate or condone this type of behavior or this type of action from anyone," Hillard said at a news conference this afternoon.

He said the mob action was "not justice of any kind. This is a simple, senseless double homicide."

Investigators said they had one suspect in custody, but no charges have been filed. They asked for the public's help in identifying the killers.

Chicago Chief of Detectives Philip Cline said investigators also were seeking anyone who may have videotaped the incident.

The two men died after a group pulled them out of their van and beat them with bricks, stones, sticks and their hands and feet, police said.

Autopsies today showed Anthony Stuckey, 49, and Jack Moore, 62, both of Chicago, died from multiple injuries and blunt trauma, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

Police did not know who was driving the van, which slammed into a limestone building in the 3900 block of South Lake Park Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A 17-year-old girl who was struck was listed in fair condition Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a hospital official said.

The two other people hit were at Mount Sinai Hospital. Jenny Lawrence, 18, was in fair condition with a facial injury and Shauna Lawrence, 26, was in critical condition in intensive care, spokeswoman Barbara Atwood said.

Virginia Stuckey told the Associated Press her son was an unemployed day laborer and factory worker who had lived with her since January.

"I really can’t believe that anyone would kill someone like that," Stuckey, 72, said.

Moore and Stuckey lived near the accident scene, police said.

Virginia Stuckey said her son was helping Moore move some items from an apartment. She said her son could not have been driving because he did not have a driver's license.

Taquita Mixon, 25, said she was at the window of her apartment across the street on Lake Park when she saw the van, which was northbound on Lake Park, swerve toward the house.

"It all happened so fast, it seemed like he floored it or something," Mixon said.

The van jumped the curb and ran up the steps of the three-story building, striking the women.

Mixon said she called 911 and returned to see a crowd around the van, some of them helping the women. She said she saw five or six men pull the driver and passenger out of the van’s passenger side and then punch, kick and beat the two men with bricks.

"They hit them with bricks that came off the side of the building," Mixon said. She said the van's driver and passenger "just went down. They didn't have a chance. It was a brutal beat-down."

Cline said it appeared no one came to the aide of Stuckey and Moore during the beating.

Mixon said two of the women struck by the van were cousins who had recently graduated from high school. She identified the third woman as a friend who worked as a security guard.

Tribune staff reporter Matthew Walberg and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune