Jailene Cepeda, a 26-year-old woman, was found on the ground around 2:45 a.m. on September 13, 2025, in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, near the 1700 block of North Kimball Avenue. She had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, and was pronounced dead. Police said another woman, 36, was also struck by gunfire and seriously injured.
In the weeks that followed, detectives announced multiple arrests tied to the shooting.
On October 19, Chicago police arrested 18-year-old Evan Reich in West Ridge and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with Cepeda’s killing; investigators placed the incident in the 3400 block of West Wabansia Avenue. That same weekend, prosecutors said two additional suspects—Gabriel Rodriguez, 23, and Julio Diaz, 24—were charged with first-degree murder after surveillance video allegedly captured the gunmen firing from a party at passing vehicles; Reich also faced an attempted-murder count for shots fired at a second woman who, in that account, was not injured. Rodriguez and Diaz were arrested on October 15 and ordered held while awaiting trial.
Authorities later said a second man, 26-year-old Carlos Marrero, was arrested on October 22 and charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the same case, and he was due in court that week. The overlapping names and charges reported by different outlets—Reich paired with Rodriguez and Diaz in one set of filings, and with Marrero in another—reflect an investigation that was still unfolding publicly as October closed.
Loved ones marked Cepeda’s death with an online fundraiser and obituary notices. Her mother wrote that she died at 2:45 a.m. on September 13 and that she left behind two young children; services were listed through Casey & Rios Funeral Home in Chicago.
