David Russell

David Russell (Police photo)









Chicago police have charged a Far South Side man in the shooting deaths of two people in the Chatham neighborhood Friday.


David A. Russell, 22, of the 9500 block of South Calumet Avenue in Chicago in the Rosemoor neighborhood, was charged with two counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted first degree murder in the killings, according to a news release from police today.


Russell had been in police custody since the day of the shooting and will appear in bond court today. Another man who had been in custody was released without charges, police said.


The shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m. Friday near 82nd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue on the South Side. As many as three beat patrol officers were talking outside a bank near 83rd and Cottage when they saw a man shoot a woman, then open fire on a man she was with, officials said.


The gunman then shot at the officers, but missed, authorities said. The officers pursued the gunman, who fled with another man in a vehicle that then crashed at 82nd Street and Drexel Avenue, authorities said.


Shots were fired by police at some point during their confrontation with the gunman, but he wasn't wounded. The gunman and the other man were taken into custody near 86th Street and Ingleside Avenue.


Kenneth Taylor, 24, of the 8300 bock of South Maryland Avenue in Chicago, and Moneet Baker, 22, of the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue in Chicago, were the two shooting victims.