On December 11, 2015, 19-year-old Joseph Graves, a student at Northern Illinois University, was shot and killed while home for the holidays in Chicago. Graves was found unresponsive in an SUV with a gunshot wound to the back of his head in the Washington Heights neighborhood. The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m., adding to the string of violent incidents that plagued the city during that period.
Graves was a young man with aspirations, and his untimely death sent shockwaves through his family, friends, and the NIU community. He had returned to Chicago to spend time with loved ones over the winter break, making the tragedy even more heart-wrenching. Despite investigations, police were still searching for his killer in the days following the incident, and his murder remains a stark reminder of the gun violence that has affected many young lives in Chicago.
