NEAR WEST SIDE — A man was fatally shot Sunday night on the Near West Side, but police said some key details remain unclear.
About 9:30 p.m., Jayarion Huddleston, 20, was shot in the back on the 2100 block of West Maypole Avenue, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital about 90 minutes later.
An initial statement from police said Huddleston was standing in the kitchen of a house when he was shot, but officials said Monday they’re questioning that detail.
“There’s a lot of conflicting information regarding exactly what happened,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at a press conference Monday. “I know there’s several witnesses stating he was in his kitchen when it happened, but there’s a lot of other witnesses who have provided different information to the detectives.
“So right now there’s several different stories out there, and we’re not exactly sure where he was when he was shot, and we have a lot more work to do on that.”
A police spokesperson Monday afternoon said detectives are still investigating and had no updates.
A neighbor, who declined to give her name because of safety concerns, said gang activity has long been a problem on that block of Maypole and in the surrounding area, although she wasn’t sure what led to Sunday’s shooting.
The neighbor said she was asleep when the shooting happened but woke up around 1 a.m. Monday to police cars on the block.
The neighbor said she’s long lived in the Near West Side, including being in the immediate area for over a decade, and she increasingly feels unsafe.
“I’ve been around different parts of this area for a long time. … It’s just getting worse,” she said.