De Andre Adams, a 25 year old Black male from Chicago, was shot and killed on February 7, 2023, in the South Shore neighborhood.
That afternoon, around 1:45 p.m., he was in the 1600 block of East 78th Street when bullets struck his head and left arm; he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. Early reports noted that no one was in custody.
Hours before the killing, De Andre had started an Instagram Live around 9 a.m. as he walked to his mother's house to do laundry. A friend, 24 year old Edwin Sims, met him there, and the two returned to the victim's apartment while the stream continued.
Inside the bedroom of that apartment on East 78th Street, the livestream captured the moment a gunman stood behind De Andre Adams and fired several shots into the back of his head and body.
The feed then showed the shooter leaning down with a gun in hand and ending the broadcast, prosecutors later said; surveillance video allegedly showed the assailant tossing both of the victim's phones into a trash can in the building before fleeing.
Detectives arrested Sims outside his home the following week and recovered from his waistband a loaded handgun equipped with an automatic-fire switch, though prosecutors said it was not the murder weapon.
In court, Sims denied killing his friend but admitted being in the bedroom wearing the same distinctive sweatshirt seen on the shooter.
He was charged with first-degree murder, unlawful use of a machine gun, and armed robbery with a firearm, and a judge ordered him held without bail.
Nearly two years later, the case ended with a plea.
On February 14, 2025, Sims accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; prosecutors dropped the other counts.
Judge Angela Munari-Petrone sentenced him to 20 years in prison and credited him 773 days for time already served and for participating in a jail GED program.
