Latest news with #LontrayClark
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Yahoo
Judge orders man detained in Austin fire that killed 4, including 5-year-old and newspaper editor
With his features hidden by a mask and a black thermal shirt, prosecutors said Lontray Clark ignited a fire in a building with 13 apartments, then returned to his car and banged his hand on the center console. '(I) lit they house on fire,' Clark told his cousin, according to prosecutors. The building soon became engulfed in flames, prosecutors said, ultimately killing four people, including a 5-year-old boy and a well-known editor for a West Side news publication group. 'Special' longtime editor of The Austin Voice among 4 killed in suspicious West Side fire Cook County Judge Shauna Boliker on Saturday ordered Clark, 23, detained while his case is pending, calling the alleged act a 'brazen disregard for life.' He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated arson, two counts of attempted murder and one count of residential arson in connection with the early-morning fire on June 26 in the 5200 block of West North Avenue. 'A 5-year-old … will never have a chance to grow up,' Boliker said. During a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Assistant State's Attorney Sheri Bennet said Clark planned the attack after seeing a social media post that indicated his former girlfriend was now seeing one of his friends. The two managed to escape their apartment, prosecutors said, but the fire spread throughout the building. Among those killed was Brad Cummings, 76, longtime editor of the Voice Newspapers, which publishes The Austin Voice and its sister publication, The Garfield-Lawndale Voice. Since its founding in 1985, The Austin Voice has been a source of local news on the West Side. Court records and other published reports identified the other three victims as Gina Brown Henry, 32; her son, Jayceon, 5; and her sister, Destiny Henry, 27. Two others were injured, including a 4-year-old boy who remains hospitalized. The boy is intubated, suffering from head trauma and burns to the face and body. 'The horrific crime was concocted by this defendant in very short order,' Boliker said. According to Bennet, Clark's former girlfriend posted a selfie inside the apartment of one of Clark's friends before the couple went to bed around midnight. Around 12:30 a.m., Clark picked up his cousin, who prosecutors identified as a witness, and drove to a gas station where he filled a container with gas. The two then drove to a store, Bennet said, where Clark bought the mask and the thermal long-sleeve shirt. Clark was then captured by surveillance video parking in an alley near the building and walking toward it with the container of gas, prosecutors said. Around 1:23 a.m., Bennet said, Clark ran back to his car where his cousin waited and jumped into the driver's seat. They then drove to his grandfather's house, where Clark stripped off his clothes, threw them in a trash bin and took a shower, authorities said. Clark was arrested on Thursday in Springfield. Clark's public defender argued to the judge that prosecutors could not put Clark directly at the scene of the apartment, while also noting that he has ties to the community with his infant child. Boliker, though, in ordering detention, said there is 'no question' that Clark poses a danger to the public. Community members and local officials said Cummings was well known in the Austin area, a frequent fixture at community events. 'He was a curmudgeon in a good way,' Len Tomasello, a columnist for the Voice Newspapers, told the Tribune after the fire. 'To him, there was only one thing — getting the paper out each week. That's what he lived and breathed for.' Clark previously was convicted in Sangamon County of illegally possessing a gun and faced two pending misdemeanors in Winnebago County. He is scheduled to return to court on Monday.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Yahoo
NW Side man charged with murder, arson in Austin fire that killed 4
A Humboldt Park man has been charged with murder in connection to the fatal fire that killed four people — including a 5-year-old boy — in the Austin neighborhood late last month. Lontray Clark, 23, faces multiple felony charges tied to the fatal blaze, including four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated arson, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of residential arson, Chicago police announced Friday evening. Clark was arrested on Wednesday in Springfield following an investigation by Chicago police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, authorities said. Authorities identified Clark as the offender who allegedly 'intentionally set fire to a residence in the 5200 block of (West) North Avenue' last month, police said. Alongside the 5-year-old, a 27-year-old woman, a 32-year-old woman and a 76-year-old man also died in the blaze, which broke out in the early morning hours of June 26, according to authorities. The 76-year-old was identified as Brad Cummings, longtime editor of the West Side's Voice Newspapers. Several published reports identified the victims as Gina Brown Henry, 32, her son, Jayceon, and her sister, Destiny Henry, 27. The fire left three others critically injured, including a 4-year-old boy. Colleagues and elected officials remembered Cummings as a hallmark of the Austin neighborhood. Len Tomasello, a columnist for the Voice Newspapers for the past three-and-a-half years, said Cummings was the 'best of the West Side.' 'He was a curmudgeon in a good way,' Tomasello said. 'To him, there was only one thing — getting the paper out each week. That's what he lived and breathed for.' Longtime West Side Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, said that 'everyone knew' Cummings. Mitts recalled that when she'd go to community events, 'I'd look around and the next thing I know, I'd see Brad.' To U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, whose district includes Austin, 'There was no person who lived in the Austin community that was more important to the area than Brad Cummings,' he said. Clark is due to appear in court for a detention hearing on Saturday. tkenny@
