Alonzo Smith, 56, a man from Chicago, was found mortally wounded just after 1:20 a.m. on June 3, 2025, in the front yard of a home on the 7800 block of South Merrill Avenue in South Shore. According to police and the medical examiner, Alonzo Smith, 56, had been shot in the head and left hand and was pronounced dead at the scene minutes later. He was identified on the morning of June 3, and investigators from Area Two opened a homicide probe into the shooting.
Alonzo Smith, 56, was described in community reporting as Black/African American.
In the still, early-morning quiet of the block, a witness told officers that an argument between two men broke out before multiple shots rang out. Responding units traced the path to the front yard where Alonzo Smith, 56, lay unresponsive, and they secured the scene while evidence technicians began their work. The details that filtered out that day painted the outline of a close-range attack—words exchanged, a sudden eruption of gunfire, and then silence—while neighbors watched the street fill with squad cars and tape.
As detectives canvassed the area for cameras and witnesses, no arrests were immediately announced. Later in June, Chicago police released surveillance images of a person wanted in connection with the killing and asked the public for help identifying the individual, urging anyone with information to contact Area Two detectives. Local outlets reiterated that, at the time of the photo release, no one had been taken into custody and the investigation remained active.
Community memorial pages and violence-archive trackers recorded the loss of Alonzo Smith, 56, on that date and at that location, echoing the official accounts of what happened in South Shore before dawn. Those listings—alongside early crime-desk reports—continued to emphasize the unanswered questions at the heart of the case: who fired the shots, why the argument escalated, and when, if ever, there would be closure through an arrest.
