John Benford, 27, was killed in the early morning hours of May 26, 2019, on the Near West Side of Chicago in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street. Officers who responded to a large group disturbance around 1:33 a.m. found him unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the chest; he was taken to Stroger Hospital and pronounced dead. The Cook County medical examiner listed the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the chest.

Two other people were wounded in the same incident: a 25-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to her forearm treated and stabilized at Stroger, and a 19-year-old man who later arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds to his right arm and left leg. No arrests were made at the scene and Area Central detectives took over the investigation. Motive and suspect identities were not established in the initial reports, and the case remained open.

Anyone with information about the shooting or who was in the area that night is asked to come forward.