Derick Coopwood

Derick D. Coopwood, a 21-year-old African-American man, was known by loved ones as “DMoney,” “BigShorty,” and “BossShorty.” Those who contributed to his memory page recalled him as a loving, charming, and kind person. He had attended Atgeld Elementary School, Henderson Elementary School, and Harper High School in Chicago. His life, however, had also been marked by legal troubles. Two years before his death, in April 2012, Derick, then 19, was one of nine people arrested in a major police bust of an open-air drug market on the West Side. Authorities alleged the operation was tied to the Conservative Vice Lord gang. He pleaded guilty to drug charges and was sentenced to community service, but later violated his probation and was sent to prison. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, he was released from the Hill Correctional Center on September 5, 2014, just over two months before he was killed.

The morning of Tuesday, November 18, 2014, was cold and bleak in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. At approximately 7:05 a.m., Chicago Police officers responded to a call and discovered Derick Coopwood in an alley in the 700 block of North Spaulding Avenue. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics arrived quickly at the scene, which was just a short distance from Derick's own home on the 700 block of North Christiana Avenue. They rushed him to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. Despite the efforts of the medical staff, Derick Coopwood was pronounced dead at 8:58 a.m., less than two hours after he was found.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office later confirmed that the cause of death was homicide by shooting. The location where he was found, a residential alley, offered few immediate clues. The early morning hour meant there were likely few witnesses to the shooting itself. The Humboldt Park neighborhood, a sprawling community on the West Side of Chicago, had been contending with significant gun violence that year, and Derick’s murder added to a grim tally of lives lost.

The investigation into Derick Coopwood's murder was immediately launched by the Chicago Police Department. Area North detectives were assigned to the case and began processing the scene in the alley, searching for shell casings, forensic evidence, and any potential surveillance footage from nearby homes or businesses that might have captured the moments before or after the shooting. Police noted at the time that Derick had documented gang ties, a detail that likely formed a significant part of their investigation into a possible motive for the killing.

In the days following the shooting, news reports detailed the circumstances of Derick's death and his recent past. However, no specific persons of interest or potential suspects were publicly identified. The investigation remained active, but as days turned into weeks, no arrests were made. There were no public appeals for specific information or descriptions of any individuals seen fleeing the area. A commenter identifying herself as Breanna Coopwood responded to online condolences for the family, but no formal family statements were released to the media in the immediate aftermath.

As of the latest available reports from late 2014, the murder of Derick Coopwood remains unsolved. No one has ever been charged in connection with his death, and the case has grown cold over the years. There have been no subsequent announcements of new leads, suspects, or arrests by the Chicago Police Department. His death is a stark reminder of the many unsolved homicide cases in the city, leaving a family without answers and a killer who has never been brought to justice. The investigation is officially still open but inactive, pending new information.