Ellis Taylor, Sr., 27, was stabbed to death on the morning of Monday, March 16, 2020, on Chicago's South Side. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the location as the 400 block of East 86th Street in Chatham, while the Sun-Times news story placed the attack in an alley in the 400 block of East 88th Street in Burnside. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office, Taylor and another person were inside a car in the alley about 10:20 a.m. when they began arguing and started fighting. The other person took out a knife and stabbed Taylor in the torso. He was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy released the next day found that he died of a stab wound to the chest. No one else was reported hurt.
Police arrested someone shortly after the stabbing, but that person was released without charges.
A police spokesperson could not say why, but the Cook County state's attorney's office said in a statement: "After a thorough review, the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to file criminal charges. The Chicago Police Department concurred with our determination in this case." The person was not named, the cause of the argument was not reported, and no claim of self-defense was made public. No reward tied to his case appears in the public record.
Beyond his name and age, little about Ellis Taylor, Sr. has been made public. The "Sr." in his name suggests he had a son named after him, but no obituary, family statement or memorial for him could be found. His family's words about who he was have not entered the public record.
The blocks around 86th to 88th streets east of State Street sit where Chatham meets Burnside, an area of homes, apartment buildings and alleys behind them. A fight inside a parked car in a residential alley on a weekday morning may well have been seen or heard by someone nearby, and that person may know what led up to it.
Taylor was killed the same week Illinois began shutting down schools and businesses for the COVID-19 pandemic. Chicago went on to record about 780 homicides in 2020, one of its deadliest years in decades, and police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in that era, though that figure counts cases closed without charges, which can include cases like this one in which a suspect is identified but never charged.
His case shows the gap between a case being closed and a case being solved in court. Police arrested the person they believed stabbed him, but prosecutors concluded the evidence was not enough to bring charges, and nothing since has changed that publicly. New witnesses or new information can still change such a decision.
No criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ellis Taylor, Sr. could be found in news archives or public records; the one person arrested was released without charges. More than 6 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw the argument in the alley that morning, or who knows what happened between him and the person in the car, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a person seen running from the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
