Tevin Davis

Five years before his death, a teenage Tevin Davis spoke with a wisdom forged in hardship, sharing a story of survival and a commitment to change. Having narrowly lived through a shooting incident, he was determined to honor his late mother’s wish for him to get an education and build a better life. "I can be out on the streets, selling drugs, or I can go to school and be somebody in life," he said in a 2012 documentary video. "I pick going to school and being somebody." Remembered by loved ones as a caring, loving, and silly young man who went by the nickname "TMan," Tevin was a 23-year-old father from Chicago. He had attended Anthony Overton Elementary and Lathrop Academy before enrolling at Collins High School, a place he described as peaceful and a key part of his new path.

That path was violently cut short on the evening of Tuesday, May 30, 2017. At approximately 8:30 p.m., Tevin, a young Black man, was sitting inside a parked vehicle on the 2700 block of West Gladys Avenue in the city’s Near West Side neighborhood. According to Chicago Police, an unknown individual approached the vehicle on foot, opened fire, and then fled the scene. Tevin was struck by the gunfire. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was officially ruled a homicide by shooting.

The week Tevin Davis was killed was a particularly violent one in Chicago. His death was one of at least 19 homicides recorded in the city that week, a grim statistic that highlighted a bloody first half of the year. The Chicago Police Department opened an investigation into the murder, but details about the case have been scarce since the initial reports. No description of the shooter was publicly released, and no persons of interest have been named. The investigation was handled by Area North detectives.

In the years since Tevin’s murder, there have been no public announcements of arrests or significant breaks in the case. For his family and friends, the lack of resolution compounds their grief. Online memorial pages show an outpouring of love, with friends and family leaving messages like "We love you Tevin" and "love you forever tman." These digital remembrances paint a picture of a cherished young man whose loss left a profound void in his community.

The story of Tevin Davis is a poignant tale of a young man who had already overcome immense adversity and was actively choosing a different future for himself and his family. His earlier words captured his resolve: "My whole life flashed before my eyes... I thought I was dead." Having survived once, he embraced the second chance he was given, only to have it stolen from him in a senseless act of violence.

As of the latest available information from June 2017, the murder of Tevin Davis remains unsolved. No suspects have been arrested, and the Chicago Police Department has not released any new information regarding the investigation. His case is one of many in Chicago that have gone cold, leaving a family without answers and a community mourning a life of promise that was tragically unfulfilled.