Wednesday, July 7, 2010

South Side man arrested in '06 slaying of barbershop owner

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DNA collected from a knit cap led Chicago police to arrest a 32-year-old parolee they described as one of two men involved in the 2006 slaying of an East Chatham neighborhood barbershop owner.

Anthony Townsend, 32, of the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and attempted armed robbery in connection with the shooting death of 33-year-old Muhaimin Karim outside his shop, authorities said today.

Townsend was denied bail on those charges when he appeared for his bond hearing today before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Adam D. Bourgeois.

Today, Karim's father said he had been waiting patiently for this day and had faith police eventually would solve his son's slaying.

Abdul Karim, 69, called Townsend "a young man who seems to me that somewhere or another he got off track and decided that he was going to use violent means, unlawful means, to live his life."

Authorities said DNA evidence collected from a knit hat Townsend left at the slaying scene led them to Townsend.

Intending to commit robbery, Townsend and an accomplice were hiding in a Dumpster at the rear of Karim's Kuts, 8237 S. Cottage Grove Ave., about 11 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2006, when at least one of Karim's employees came outside, authorities said.

Hearing the sounds of a struggle, Karim came outside to help. He found Townsend fighting with one of his employees.

At that point, Townsend's accomplice--who is still being sought--came over to assist Townsend, authorities said.

Several shots were fired by Townsend and his accomplice, but ballistics tests and witnesses helped detectives determine it was the unknown suspect's bullets that killed Karim.

An autopsy the following day found that Karim, who lived in Chicago's South Side, died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Townsend eventually submitted a sample of his DNA to police when he was arrested on an unrelated charge, authorities said. He was arrested on the latest charges Tuesday after the match was found.

Townsend was on parole for a 2009 felony weapons conviction, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections Web site. His criminal record also includes convictions for fleeing police and drugs.

"I was convinced that eventually that if this young fellow (Townsend) killed my son, then, let's face it, eventually he's going to do something else whereby he would be caught of that," Abdul Karim said. "They (police) need to get this other fellow, whoever he is, off the street as soon as possible."

Abdul Karim, a retired cabdriver, said his son was married to a woman from Ghana. They had two young daughters.

At the time of his Muhaimin Karim's death, his wife and daughters lived in Ghana, but he was supposed to move there with them in January 2007, Abdul Karim said.

Born and raised in Chicago, Muhaimin Karim attended Goodlow Magnet School in the city's West Englewood neighborhood and Hyde Park Academy High School.

Abdul Karim described his son as artistic, and said he started cutting hair while in high school.

"Once he finished high school, he really wasn't interested in going to college," Abdul Karim said. "So by the time he finished high school, he was pretty much a good barber."

He said his son and another person whom he befriended eventually opened a barbershop near East 75th Street and South Stony Island Avenue. But that shop closed, Abdul Karim said, and his son then opened Karim's Kuts on Cottage Grove.

"I think what happens is that in cases like this, we have to be patient and let the authorities do their job," Abdul Karim said.

"I have to put my trust in the law because let's face, we're not people, you and me, who take the law in our own hands," he added. "So we have to rely on the law to do ... the proper thing."

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