Devon Edwards, 31, was stabbed to death in the 7500 block of South Sangamon Street in Auburn Gresham, on Chicago's South Side, on the morning of Friday, April 1, 2022. The Chicago Police Department investigated. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records his death as a stabbing, and no one has been publicly charged.
Officers were called to the block shortly before 7 a.m. and found a man with several stab wounds on the street, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead. While officers were investigating that attack, they found a second man with a stab wound to his neck, who was pronounced dead at the scene. A Chicago Fire Department spokesman, Larry Merritt, said the victims were men in their 20s and 30s. The Cook County medical examiner's office identified them as Devon Edwards, 31, and Reginald Walton, 27.
Police released almost nothing else.
The Sun-Times reported that "no other details were released" and that police reported no arrests. No description of an attacker, no vehicle, no motive and no person of interest was made public, and no reward tied to the case could be found. It has never been publicly explained whether the two men knew each other, whether they were attacked together, or whether the two stabbings were part of a single confrontation.
Little has been published about Devon Edwards's life. An obituary notice posted through Leak & Sons Funeral Homes records a Devon Edwards who passed on April 1, 2022, and a separate memorial listing for a Devon Edwards who died on that date was posted on Legacy.com. Beyond those notices, no family statement, fundraiser or news profile could be found. Devon Edwards is also a fairly common name, and searches are crowded with lawyers, filmmakers and other men who share it, which makes it harder to trace the man who died on Sangamon Street.
The 7500 block of South Sangamon Street lies in Auburn Gresham, a largely residential community of brick bungalows and two-flats on the South Side, a few blocks from the busy commercial strip along 79th Street. An attack on the street at the start of a weekday morning, when neighbors leave for work and children head to school, is the kind of event that people nearby may have seen or heard.
Chicago recorded about 720 homicides in 2022, down from about 800 in 2021, which had been the deadliest year in a quarter century. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in those years, though those figures count cases closed without charges. A double killing with two victims and no public suspect is unusual even in a violent year, and the lack of any follow-up reporting suggests the case quickly faded from public view.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Devon Edwards could be found in news archives or public records. More than 4 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near South Sangamon Street early that Friday morning, or who knew Devon Edwards or Reginald Walton and heard talk afterward about what happened between them or to them, 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).
