On the afternoon of August 16, 2021, in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, Javunte “Squeak” Wheeler, a 26-year-old male African American, producer and DJ with the West Side hip-hop collective Pivot Gang, pulled up to his grandmother's home on the 5000 block of West St. Paul Avenue.
Family would later recount that he stepped out to speak with his uncle, 27-year-old Darion Hood, and that a Ring doorbell camera captured what happened next: Javunte 'Squeak' Wheeler and his 27-year-old
uncle were shot by a passenger in the 26-year-old's car.
Both suffered gunshot wounds to the head.
Police and medics arrived on scene just after 12:30 p.m. and rushed the 26-year-old male and his 27-year-old uncle to Mount Sinai Hospital, where both were pronounced dead, according to initial reports and subsequent confirmations from the Cook County medical examiner.
In the hours that followed, tributes rippled out from the music community as friends and collaborators marked the loss of the 26-year-old Javunte 'Squeak' Wheeler, whose work had helped define a slice of Chicago's contemporary sound.
Detectives canvassed the block for video and witnesses while the family's description of the shooter—as a passenger in Javunte's car, circulated through local coverage.
Police describe the assailant only as an “unknown offender,” and early summaries stressed that no arrests had been made.
Public-facing accounts that revisited the case in the days after did not report a suspect in custody, leaving the killing of the 26-year-old Javunte 'Squeak' Wheeler and his 27-year-old uncle without a publicly named perpetrator.
