Stephon Mack, a 24-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in a targeted attack on the afternoon of January 27, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. At about 3:45 p.m., as Mack was leaving the Youth Peace Center of Roseland on West 111th Street, two gunmen emerged from a dark-colored Chrysler 300 and opened fire. Mack was struck multiple times in his head and chest and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A 40-year-old security guard at the youth center was also wounded in the leg during the shooting but survived his injuries.
The subsequent investigation revealed the killing was a murder-for-hire plot. Federal prosecutors indicted two Chicago men, Anthony Montgomery-Wilson, 24, and Preston Powell, 23, on charges of murder for hire and conspiracy to use an interstate facility in the commission of a murder for hire. Montgomery-Wilson faced an additional firearm charge. The indictment alleged that the two men conspired with each other and others to murder Stephon Mack in exchange for money.
The case expanded significantly when court documents unsealed in December 2024 linked the killing to Chicago rapper Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks. In an affidavit, federal agents alleged that Banks orchestrated and funded the murder plot in retaliation for the 2021 killing of his brother, Dontay Banks Jr. Investigators claimed that Mack was the leader of a gang faction with ties to the group responsible for Dontay Banks's death. The affidavit stated that a confidential source reported Banks was offering money for people to kill those responsible. Evidence cited by investigators included text messages, social media posts, and lyrics from one of the rapper's songs.
Anthony Montgomery-Wilson was taken into custody and pleaded not guilty, while a warrant was issued for Preston Powell, who remained at large. Later, federal prosecutors charged Durk Banks in a superseding indictment filed in a separate Los Angeles case, adding two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity (VICAR) related to the murder of Stephon Mack. As of September 2026, Banks had been acquitted of other charges in the Los Angeles case, but the federal charges connected to Mack's death remained pending, with a trial scheduled for the following month.
