Chad D. Schenk, a 41-year-old Black man known for his street ministry and work helping people experiencing homelessness, was found shot to death inside his Little Italy apartment in Chicago on December 17, 2025. Officers entered the residence in the 700 block of South Carpenter Street about 2:40 p.m. after a longtime friend requested a welfare check; Schenk was discovered unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds to his face, neck and body and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutors say Schenk met a man identified as 25-year-old Michael Wilson aboard an inbound Blue Line train in the early hours of December 14. Surveillance footage allegedly shows them leaving UIC-Halsted station together and walking toward Schenk’s apartment, with Wilson carrying a distinctive backpack decorated with a zombie bear design. Authorities allege Wilson later shot Schenk eight times after an encounter inside the apartment and then left; shell casings collected at the scene were later forensically linked to a handgun recovered from Wilson during an unrelated arrest on December 31.

Wilson was charged with one felony count of first-degree murder on April 20, 2026; the charge is an accusation and the case was pending. No additional suspects have been publicly identified. Did anyone in Chicago’s Little Italy or on the Blue Line see Schenk or the distinctive backpack in mid-December 2025?