Mar 25, 2007 10:33 pm US/Central
Cold Case: Young Man Gunned Down On Busy Street
Roy Ruiz May Have Been Killed Because Of Mistaken Identity
by Jim Williams
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Roy Ruiz was gunned down at this bus stop on his way to work in 2002.
CBS
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Murder victim Roy Ruiz.
CBS
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The family of murder victim Roy Ruiz (bottom right).
CBS
A young man on his way to work is murdered -- gunned down at a bus stop on a busy city street.
As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports, nearly five years later his family desperately wants answers.
It was Aug. 17, 2002. The time -- 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. It was time for 20-year-old Roy Ruiz to head for work. He had just sold his car, so that day he was taking the bus.
"He had only been without a car for about a week," said Roy's brother, Salvador Ruiz.
"He comes out of his house, across the street; he stands at the bus stop. He's waiting to go to work," said Ronald Yawger with the
Chicago Police Department. "He works at Illinois Masonic Hospital."
That's when two men approached.
"The two guys are together facing against him," Yawger said. "They shot him. He stumbled. He actually tried to reach for his phone."
Two bullets to the chest -- witnesses saw the whole thing. They told police the men jumped in a black, four-door, square box-model Cadillac and took off.
Paramedics raced Ruiz to
Illinois Masonic Hospital, the very hospital where he worked as food-prep worker. But it was too late.
"[It was] the worst day of my life," Salvador Ruiz said. "It's very difficult to go through, difficult to understand why something like that would happen, how it could happen. It just turned our life upside down."
Roy was one of eight children in the tightly knit Ruiz family. He was the youngest boy. One of his brothers is a cop.
Police believe that Roy's murder was a case of mistaken identity, a battle between rival gangs.
"It's a gang thing that he's not even involved in," Yawger said. "[He had] never been in any trouble with the police. Just a good, hard-working kid.
"He was just a real fun guy to be with, real energetic, the life of the party," Salvador Ruiz said.
His was a life taken way too soon.
"A lot of people know who did this," Yawger said. "We're just hoping to get someone to come forward to give us a little information to help us along."
"There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about him," Salvador Ruiz said. "We miss him dearly."
If you have any information, call the Chicago Police Cold Case Squad at (312) 746-4364.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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