Centrell Smith, 56, was stabbed to death in the early morning hours of Thursday, November 26, 2020, Thanksgiving Day, in the 900 block of North Drake Avenue in Humboldt Park on the city's West Side. Area Four detectives of the Chicago Police Department investigated.
Officers found Smith on the ground about 2:15 a.m., and at first it appeared he had simply fallen from a bicycle, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office said. He had a cut on his back and was having trouble breathing, so he was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Only the next day did the truth come out: an autopsy conducted Friday showed he had suffered "multiple sharp force injuries," and the medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide.
Police did not release any description of the person who stabbed him, any vehicle, or any motive, and no one was reported to be in custody.
It is not known publicly whether Smith was attacked on Drake Avenue or somewhere else before he rode, or tried to ride, the bicycle to the spot where officers found him. No reward tied to his case could be found. Because the stabbing was not recognized at the scene, the first hours of the investigation may have passed before detectives knew they were looking for a killer.
Little about Centrell Smith's life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account, and police did not say where he lived. He surely had family and friends who expected to see him on Thanksgiving. Searches for his name turn up a Buffalo, New York, DJ and Kwanzaa organizer and other people who share it, none of whom is the man who died in Chicago.
The 900 block of North Drake Avenue is a residential stretch of the Humboldt Park community area, a West Side neighborhood long known as a center of Chicago's Puerto Rican community and named for the large park nearby. At 2 a.m. on a holiday, the streets would have been quiet, but people coming home from Thanksgiving Eve gatherings, neighbors who heard an argument, or a home security camera may have caught a glimpse of what happened.
Centrell Smith was one of about 780 people killed in Chicago in 2020, a sharp rise from about 500 the year before. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in those years, and that figure counts cases closed without anyone being charged. With so many killings to investigate, cases with few public details often faded from the news within days.
Cases like this can still be solved. In July 2021, Chicago police charged two people in the October 2020 stabbing of Sebastian Bobak in Humboldt Park, and a man in the November 2020 stabbing of Malcolm Mullins in Chatham, months after the first news reports had faded.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Centrell Smith could be found in news archives or public records. More than 5 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw him riding a bicycle late on Thanksgiving Eve, who knew where he was headed, or who heard someone talk afterward about a stabbing on Drake Avenue may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving 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).
