John A. McKinley, a 36-year-old African-American man known affectionately to his loved ones as "Big John," was remembered as a hardworking man and a devoted father to his two children. He was also a big brother, a man who attended Curtis School and was building a life in his native Chicago. His life was cut short in a sudden act of violence on a late summer night in 2016.
On the night of Saturday, September 10, 2016, John was driving on the Far South Side of the city. At approximately 11:25 p.m., as he passed through an intersection in the 11200 block of South Langley Avenue in the Pullman neighborhood, another vehicle pulled up alongside his. Without warning, someone inside the other car opened fire. John was struck by the gunfire and fatally wounded. He was officially pronounced dead on September 11, 2016, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The shooting took place in a neighborhood rich with American history. Pullman, once a meticulously planned industrial town built by George Pullman for his railroad car company workers, is a designated National Monument known for its distinctive rowhouses and historic factory complex. By 2016, this community on the city’s southern edge was a predominantly African-American neighborhood grappling with the same challenges of violence that affected many other parts of Chicago.
John’s death occurred during a year of extreme violence for the city. In 2016, Chicago experienced a dramatic and tragic spike in homicides, with the total number of killings surpassing 760 for the year, a level of violence not seen in nearly two decades. The weekend John was killed was particularly brutal, underscoring what news reports at the time called an "epidemic of violence" on the city's streets. His homicide was one of many that year attributed to gun violence, which officials linked to a troubling readiness to settle disputes with firearms.
The Chicago Police Department handled the initial investigation into John McKinley’s murder. Detectives responded to the scene on South Langley Avenue to gather evidence and seek out any potential witnesses to the drive-by shooting. In the immediate aftermath, police reports indicated that the motive was unknown, and no description of the suspect vehicle or the shooter was publicly released.
Despite the initial investigation, there have been no significant public updates in the years since John’s death. No arrests have been announced, and no suspects have been named, leaving his family and community without answers or justice. His case is one of hundreds from that violent year that remain unsolved. As of September 2016, the investigation was ongoing, but the trail appears to have gone cold. John McKinley is remembered not as a statistic from a violent year, but as a beloved father, brother, and hardworking man whose life was taken far too soon.
