Prosecutors in Cook County say the Halloween-night killing of Chicago Heights anti-violence leader Andre Thomas was planned in advance by three men — and on Tuesday, November 10, they laid out that case in court against the one man charged so far, 54-year-old Alex Morris of Chicago, while the other two men they described have not been charged.
Source: CWB Chicago
Thomas, 57, of Matteson, was shot multiple times on the night of Saturday, October 31, 2026, in the 400 block of West 14th Street in Chicago Heights, outside the strip mall where his violence-prevention organisation worked. A ShotSpotter gunshot alert sounded at 9:24 p.m., and Thomas was found at about 9:25 p.m. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead that night. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
Source: Chicago Heights Police Department statement, reported by Chicago Sun-Times
What prosecutors told the court
According to the detention filing described by prosecutors at the Markham courthouse hearing, surveillance video showed Morris and a first alleged accomplice being dropped off near 15th Place and Wilson Avenue at about 9 p.m. on October 31 — roughly a block from the parking lot where Thomas was killed. Thomas pulled into the 14th Street parking lot about 10 minutes later and stayed inside his vehicle for another 10 minutes, prosecutors said.
Morris and the accomplice then walked through the parking lot and separated, prosecutors said. Morris approached the driver's side of Thomas's vehicle; Thomas stepped out and the two had a brief conversation. During that encounter, prosecutors allege, Morris pulled out a gun and fired several shots at close range, striking Thomas multiple times, with at least one bullet striking him in the face. The ShotSpotter system detected six gunshots at 9:24 p.m., and detectives later recovered six 9-millimetre cartridge casings at the scene.
Video allegedly showed Morris and the first accomplice running from the parking lot together and, at 9:27 p.m., getting into the same vehicle that had dropped them off. License-plate readers tracked that vehicle, and investigators determined it was registered to the mother of a second alleged accomplice — a man who, prosecutors said, knew Thomas “from work.” The filing did not say whether that work was in violence prevention or another field. Investigators also used plate-reader data and surveillance footage to follow the pair through several suburbs and onto a Pace bus.
How investigators reached Morris
Chicago police officers stopped Morris in an unrelated matter on November 5, prosecutors said, and body-worn camera footage from that stop showed him wearing the same distinctive clothing worn by Thomas's killer. When investigators arrested him the next day — Friday, November 6, near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago, according to the Chicago Heights police statement — he was still wearing the same clothing, except for different shoes, the filing said.
Prosecutors said Morris admitted he was with the first accomplice on the night of the killing but did not admit shooting Thomas. He allegedly told investigators he feared the second accomplice and said that man had picked them up that night so Morris could serve as a lookout. Those are prosecutors' allegations from the detention filing, not findings of fact. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office approved one count of first-degree murder on November 8, and at the Tuesday hearing Judge Luciano Panici ordered Morris detained. Prosecutors offered no motive for the killing.
The man Thomas was
Thomas founded Integrity & Fidelity in 2021 and served as its chief executive. The organisation works in Chicago and the south suburbs to mediate street conflicts in real time, teach alternative ways to resolve disputes, and connect residents with support services. Before leading it, he had worked with other violence-prevention groups, including Ceasefire. Colleagues and loved ones honoured him at a balloon release last week, remembering a man who had dedicated his life to reducing gun violence and building safer communities — work that meant standing, night after night, in the same kinds of parking lots and street corners where he was killed.
Alex Morris is charged with first-degree murder. A charge is an allegation: he is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted in court. The accounts of the two other men come from prosecutors' detention filing; neither has been charged, and neither is named in the reporting.
What happens next
The investigation is being run by the Chicago Heights Police Department with the Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force. Police have said other persons of interest were identified in the first week of the investigation, but they are not releasing details while it continues. The two men prosecutors described in court — the accomplice dropped off with Morris and the driver who picked them up — remain uncharged and at large, and no motive has been made public. Morris remains in custody following Judge Panici's detention order, and the case now moves through the Cook County court at Markham.