Reginald Walton, 27, was one of two men 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 responded 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 police were investigating, they found a second man with a stab wound to his neck, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said the victims were men in their 20s and 30s.
The Cook County medical examiner's office identified one as Reginald Walton, 27, and the other as Devon Edwards, 31.
"No other details were released," the Sun-Times reported, and police reported no arrests. No description of an attacker, no vehicle, no motive and no person of interest was ever made public, and no reward tied to the case could be found. Public reports did not say whether the two men knew each other, whether they were together when they were attacked, or which of them was found on the street and which was found later.
Reginald Walton's family laid him to rest later that month. An obituary notice from Leak & Sons Funeral Homes lists a wake at 10 a.m. and a funeral at 11 a.m. on April 11, 2022, at the Leak and Sons chapel at 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave., not far from where he died. No family statement, news profile or fundraiser about him could be found. Many other men share his name, among them a federal judge in Washington, D.C., and a truck driver who made national news in 2024, and none of their stories has anything to do with this case.
The 7500 block of South Sangamon Street is in Auburn Gresham, a largely residential community of bungalows and two-flats a few blocks north of the 79th Street commercial corridor. An attack that left two men dead on a weekday morning, at an hour when neighbors leave for work and children walk to school, is the kind of event that people nearby may have seen, heard or talked about afterward.
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 like this one, with two victims and no public suspect, drew only a brief news item at the time, and no follow-up reporting could be found.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Reginald Walton 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 South Sangamon Street early that Friday, or who knew Reginald Walton or Devon Edwards and heard what led to the attack, 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).
