Ezekiel “Zeke” Ingram, 26, a Black male from Rockford, was shot on the evening of January 10, 2021, after police were called around 7:10 p.m. to the 400 block of Webster Avenue for a report of a shooting victim. Officers found him wounded; he was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Winnebago County Coroner later identified him by name, confirming the fatal shooting on Webster Avenue that Sunday night. Obituary records note he was born March 21, 1994, and that he died at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.
Detectives opened a homicide investigation that night. Subsequent public records on the incident list a suspect, Stephen Johnson, then 31, whose status was recorded as arrested in connection with Ingram's killing. Local reporting at the time also indicated authorities had charged a man in the Jan. 10 fatal shooting, aligning with the arrest notation in those records; accounts further indicated the defendant was already in custody on an unrelated matter when the homicide charge was filed.
Ingram's death drew community attention and support for his family in the days that followed, including memorial gestures and fundraising appeals cited in coverage of the case. Investigators asked anyone with information to contact Rockford Police or Crime Stoppers as the case moved through the criminal justice process.
