Chicago Teen Allegedly Killed Six Strangers in Nine Months and Prosecutors Say They Never Met

The grieving mother of a 16-year-old Chicago murder victim has publicly rejected assertions by prosecutors that accused killer Antonio Reyes never met the six individuals he is charged with executing.

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times following the announcement of five additional first-degree murder charges against the 21-year-old defendant, Marlen Rangel revealed that her teenage son, Damian Duran, had been friends with Reyes before he was shot dead in May 2020.

Rangel disclosed that Reyes had visited her family residence and that she had exchanged direct electronic messages with him after her son's body was discovered on the city's Southwest Side.

With defence attorneys challenging the credibility of prosecution informants and disputed ballistics during pretrial detention hearings, Rangel's account introduces substantial complications into the state's central theory of random violence.

Victim's Mother Challenges Claims in Antonio Reyes Murder Case

Rangel revealed that she exchanged messages with Reyes after her son's body was discovered. Her account stands in stark contrast to assertions made by Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke during a formal press conference on 26 February 2025.

'None of these people had ever met Antonio Reyes before,' Burke said. That was the prosecution's stated position, not an established finding by a court.

Legal analysts emphasise that the prosecutor's declaration represents the state's preliminary factual theory rather than a verified finding established in court.

Prosecutors accused Reyes of six killings between March and November 2020, when he was 16 or 17. The shootings took place across Chicago's Southwest Side.

The earliest newly charged killing involved Francisco Mangana, 31, shot on 2 March. Claudio Cossio was killed on 5 April, when another man was wounded. Prosecutors also charged Reyes with attempting to murder that survivor.

Duran was killed on 1 May. Luis Davalos Garcia, 26, was shot dead on 24 June, the case that led to Reyes's initial arrest in December 2020.

In November, Jose Martinez, 31, was shot while waiting with his three young children to buy a puppy. The children, aged three to nine, survived, but Martinez later died from his injuries. Reyes faced three attempted-murder charges over the attack on the children.

Prosecutors also accused Reyes of fatally shooting Justin Gonzalez, 20, in November. Together with the earlier Davalos Garcia case, the new charges brought the number of alleged murder victims to six.

At the February announcement, Cossio's mother, Nohemi Cossio, described the shock of learning about the other cases. 'It was like he was killing someone every month,' she said.

Antonio Reyes Faces Disputed Evidence at April Court Hearing

Police said a .40-calibre handgun recovered in 2020 provided a link between several shootings. Investigators also examined social media activity, surveillance footage and community tips. Those findings formed part of the allegations against Reyes, not proof of guilt.

At a hearing on 24 April 2025, prosecutors described admissions allegedly made by Reyes to others. They also outlined possible gang-related circumstances surrounding some shootings, complicating their earlier description of wholly random attacks.

Reyes's public defender, Kate Moriarty, challenged the reliability of witnesses, including people with criminal convictions and a jailhouse informant. She disputed the strength of the prosecution's evidence.

Judge Mary M. Brosnahan ordered Reyes detained in the five newly charged murder cases. Reyes also faced a separate attempted-murder allegation over an attack on a cellmate in 2022, which was not among February's four counts.

The stark contradictions between the state's narrative and the mother's account remained completely unresolved following the April detention hearing.

No final trial verdict or subsequent judicial disposition in the consolidated murder proceedings has been independently verified as of November 2026.