Jose Correa

Jose Correa was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who had worked for the same company since moving to Illinois from Mexico four decades earlier. For 40 years, he was married to his wife, Catalina, after a charming first meeting at a soccer game where his shoe flew off when he kicked the ball, and they both smiled. They had a civil ceremony in Mexico City and were planning a church wedding for June 2017 at St. Agnes of Bohemia, right across the street from their family home. Jose, a 60-year-old Hispanic man, was a dedicated provider who had worked at Callen Manufacturing, a die-casting company in Northlake, for his entire career in the United States. He and Catalina lived in a two-story brick home in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood with their daughter, Adriana, and two sons. A neighbor, Jesus Carlin, remembered them as a "good family, good community members."

The morning of Wednesday, February 22, 2017, began like any other. Jose typically left for work around 4 a.m., but on this day, something went terribly wrong. Around 7:30 a.m., a neighbor noticed the garage door was open and called Catalina. She saw that her husband's truck was still parked inside and went to investigate. There, on the floor of their detached garage in the 2700 block of South Central Park Avenue, she found Jose unresponsive and bleeding. Her son called 911, but it was too late. Jose had been shot multiple times in the back, neck, and mouth. Paramedics transported him to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. No one in the family reported hearing any unusual noises that morning.

The family was left reeling from the sudden and brutal loss. "He did no harm to anybody," Catalina told reporters, overcome with grief. "He didn’t deserve to die this way." For 40 years, she said, "he took care of his family." The tragedy was compounded by a painful history of loss. In 2009, Jose and Catalina's son, Juan Torres, was also killed by gun violence just half a mile from their home. Their grandson, Juan Miguel Torres, was devastated to find himself at the same hospital where his own father had died. "Just to go to the same hospital where my father passed was really hard," he said. The family was preparing for a wedding, a joyous occasion, but was instead faced with planning a funeral.

The Chicago Police Department opened a homicide investigation into Jose Correa's death. Detectives processed the scene in the family's garage, but no information about a possible motive or any persons of interest was released to the public. The shooting occurred during a period of heightened gun violence in the city; in fact, the day Jose was killed was one of the deadliest of the year so far in Chicago. His death was one of several homicides that kept the city on pace with the exceptionally high murder rate of the previous year.

In the years since Jose Correa was killed, there have been no public updates on the investigation. No suspects have been named, and no arrests have been made in connection with his murder. The case remains open and unsolved, leaving his family without answers or justice for the man they loved. His wife's words echo the senselessness of the crime: "It's not possible. He did no harm to anybody. He did not need to go the way he did." The investigation continues, and the family waits for a break in the case that will explain why a beloved family man was taken from them in his own garage on a cold February morning.