Ricky Allen Byrdsong, a 43-year-old African-American former college basketball coach, was murdered on July 3, 1999, in Skokie, Illinois. He was jogging near his home with his 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter when a white supremacist, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, shot him in the lower back. Byrdsong was taken to Evanston Hospital for surgery but succumbed to his injuries.

Smith’s attack was part of a multi-day shooting spree that began in Rogers Park and extended into Skokie and Northbrook. During that spree Smith also killed a Korean-American college student, wounded six Orthodox Jewish men, three other African-American men including a minister, and a Taiwanese immigrant. Smith, who was affiliated with the Creativity Movement, ultimately died by suicide before police could apprehend him.

Byrdsong’s widow, Sherialyn Byrdsong, later spoke publicly about gun control and racial harmony and the community mourned the loss of a coach and father.