Franklin Carlos Aguilar, a 39-year-old Hispanic male from Chicago, died on January 6, 2016, two weeks after he was shot in the head during a predawn ambush in Back of the Yards in the pre-dawn hours of Christmas morning 2015.
He was taken to Stroger Hospital in grave condition on Christmas Day and was pronounced dead at 5:27 a.m. on January 6; the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by complications of the gunshot wound.
He was listed as living in the 7200 block of South Millard.
In the cold early hours of December 25, 2015, about 2:10 a.m., Aguilar sat in a car on the 4700 block of South Loomis when another vehicle pulled alongside and someone opened fire.
A 20-year-old man in the car with him was grazed in the back and refused treatment at the scene, while Aguilar was rushed away with a back of the head wound that would prove fatal.
The attack unfolded as a drive-by on a quiet residential stretch, the flash of gunfire leaving little more than shattered glass and the whine of an engine disappearing into the dark.
Police statements and contemporaneous reports did not name a suspect or announce any arrests tied to the shooting, and the brief notices that followed focused on the suddenness of the attack rather than a motive.
The case notes circulated in local coverage and memorial listings echo that absence of attribution, recording the where and when of the gunfire but leaving the who, and the why, unanswered.
This case unlike most cases of this nature has a rather uplifting ending of sorts.
According to Franklin Aguilar's widow Kathy Aguilar, Franklin had long decided before that tragic Christmas morning in 2015, that if anything were to ever happen to him that he would give the most selfless gift anyone could give.
The gift of life, due to his organ donor status, Franklin Aguilar's senseless killing gave life to five organ donor recipients who otherwise may have not lived to see Christmas 2016.
As of September 2025, almost a decade has passed, and no one has yet to be held accountable for the pre-dawn drive-by killing of 39-year-old Franklin Carlos Agulilar and the wounding of his 20-year-old male passenger who would make a recovery.
