Man dies after being stabbed in River North, driving a few blocks to Magnificent Mile

CHICAGO (CBS) — A 36-year-old man is dead after being stabbed in River North and driving a few blocks until his car stopped on the Magnificent Mile Tuesday evening.

As CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported, it all happened at the height of rush hour around 6:45 p.m. The chain of events ended in the middle of the street on Michigan Avenue near Ontario Street and the Burberry store – but it began several blocks to the west at Ohio and Dearborn streets.

“You want to go out and walk on Michigan Avenue and you can’t even do that,” said Vesna Arsic, “and second, I was just thinking, this is going to be such a beautiful night – and then, you know, you see this, and it’s very hard to be happy. You can’t ignore it. It’s like right in your face.”  

Late Tuesday at the latter intersection, police had set up a barrier around a bloody black sandal that was left sitting in the street. A squad car remained at the scene a day later.

Police say a man identified by family as Jeremy Walker was stabbed in the neck after some kind of fight with another person. Walker then got behind the wheel of a blue Kia and tried to find help.

Calls to 911 came in from people on the street who saw the badly injured driver.

“Caller says he sees a man in a blue Kia,” a dispatcher said over police radio. “He looks to be stabbed. He’s bleeding from the neck driving eastbound on Ohio.”

The blue Kia ended up in the median on Michigan Avenue, where Walker flagged down officers. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died Tuesday evening. 

CBS 2’s Sabrina Franza spoke Wednesday with Walker’s loved-ones, who would do anything to be there for him in those final moments.

Walker left behind a 12-year-old boy, Jaylen. His longtime girlfriend said he was on the way to pick her up Tuesday evening – and never showed.

Walker’s girlfriend, Jessica Evans, said she waited an hour and a half for him to show up – before tracking down his phone. After figuring out where it was, she walked up on her worst nightmare.

That track led her right to the crime scene, where she found her abandoned Kia – but no Walker.

“I essentially walked up on the scene of my car and the police officers,” Evans said.

By the time Evans got to the hospital, it was too late.

She said she was told, “I would not be allowed in the building, and that our family needed to contact the coroner’s office.”

Walker was by himself when he died, Evans said. She and other loved-ones of Walker’s are now begging for answers.

“Why didn’t nobody say anything? Like, I had his ID on him. He had his cell phone on him. I was calling him. His son was calling him. His mom was calling him,” Evans said. “They took a good person. He was a good brother, and a good son, and a good father.”

Police have not released further information about what happened, except that a quarrel started the chain of events. They also have not released photos of anyone involved – or provided a description.

No one was in custody Wednesday afternoon. Area Three detectives are investigating.