Andre Thomas: Anti-Violence Leader Shot Dead, Man Charged

DHF-070 — Andre Thomas: Anti-Violence Leader Shot Dead, Man Charged

Case No. DHF-070 | Subject: Andre Thomas, 57, chief executive of the community violence-interruption organisation Integrity & Fidelity, shot dead on Halloween night, Saturday 31 October 2026, in the 400 block of West 14th Street, Chicago Heights, Illinois; Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago, was arrested on Friday 6 November 2026 and charged with first-degree murder on Sunday 8 November 2026, and is scheduled to appear in court in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026 | Date: Saturday 31 October 2026 (killing); Sunday 8 November 2026 (charge); Tuesday 10 November 2026 (court appearance scheduled) | Location: 400 block of West 14th Street, Chicago Heights, Illinois, USA | Status: CHARGED

Posted: 10 November 2026

Status stamp: CHARGED

Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Andre Thomas, Alex Morris, any member of any family, any colleague, any investigator, any official, or any real person, and no image depicts any act of violence, any death, any arrest, or any weapon.

Caption: Case card for DHF-070 — Andre Thomas, Chicago Heights, Illinois. Status: CHARGED.

THE FILE CARD

Case File No.	DHF-070
Subject	Andre Thomas, 57, of Matteson, Illinois, chief executive and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence-interruption organisation working in Chicago and the south suburbs, was shot on Halloween night, Saturday 31 October 2026, in the 400 block of West 14th Street in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead that night. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide. Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago, was arrested on Friday 6 November 2026 and charged with first-degree murder on Sunday 8 November 2026. He is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026.
Date	Saturday 31 October 2026 (killing); Friday 6 November 2026 (arrest); Sunday 8 November 2026 (charge approved); Tuesday 10 November 2026 (court appearance scheduled).
Location	400 block of West 14th Street, Chicago Heights, Illinois, USA. Chicago Heights is a separate municipality south of Chicago, not a neighbourhood of the city.
Status	CHARGED
Investigating authorities	Chicago Heights Police Department, assisted by the Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, with the Chicago Police Department assisting in the arrest.
Person charged	Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago, charged with first-degree murder. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. The police have said other persons of interest were identified during the investigation, but they have not named any other person as a suspect or said whether anyone else will be charged.
One-line summary	A 57-year-old man who had spent his life trying to stop gun violence in Chicago was shot dead on Halloween night in Chicago Heights; nine days later, a 54-year-old Chicago man was arrested and charged with his murder, and is due in court in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026, while the police say their investigation is still ongoing.

Why this file is stamped CHARGED: The stamp records only the position as it stands on 10 November 2026. The Chicago Heights police say Andre Thomas, 57, was shot on the night of Saturday 31 October 2026 and died of his injuries, and that the Cook County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. The police say Alex Morris, 54, was arrested on Friday 6 November 2026, and that on Sunday 8 November 2026 the Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the facts of the investigation and approved a charge of first-degree murder against him. He is scheduled to appear in court in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026. A charge is not a conviction, and this file names him only as charged. No plea, no bail decision and no trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here, and the police have not stated a motive or said whether the two men knew each other. If the charge is dropped, if a conviction follows, or if the police say more, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten.

THE CASE

Halloween night

On the evening of Saturday 31 October 2026, Andre Thomas spent part of Halloween in Englewood, on the South Side of Chicago, handing out sweets to young people and talking with residents — the account given by his organisation and his family. It was the kind of evening he had built his working life around: out on the street, with the people his work was for, on a night when the streets are full of children.

Later that evening he went to Chicago Heights, a separate municipality south of Chicago, where his organisation had its office. His family said he was heading there to wait for the rest of his crew. He never came home.

Just before 9:30 p.m., the Chicago Heights Police Department responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street after a gunshot-detection alert. The first account, from CBS Chicago, put the police response at 9:24 p.m.; the Chicago Sun-Times subsequently reported that Thomas was found at about 9:25 p.m. The two times are minutes apart, and the difference does not matter to the record — but the small differences in the early reporting are the first sign of the one real uncertainty in this file: exactly where, on that block, Thomas was shot.

When officers arrived, they found Thomas with gunshot wounds. The Chicago Heights Fire Department took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was 57 years old. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

The police asked residents and business owners in the area to review their security footage for activity between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. that Saturday night. That fifteen-minute window is, in the public record, the whole of the known time of the killing: a gunshot-detection alert, officers on the block, a man found shot, and a hospital pronouncement less than forty minutes later.

Where exactly he was shot

The one fact in this file that is not settled is the precise scene, and it is worth setting out plainly, because three different accounts of it are in circulation and they do not agree.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on 2 November that Thomas was found shot in his office, citing the police and the medical examiner's office. CBS Chicago's account of 1 November described a parking-lot shooting, with surveillance video from near the same block shortly before 9:30 p.m. Other reporting described Thomas approaching his parked car, or sitting inside his parked vehicle, when he was shot at close range.

The reporting agrees on the block — the 400 block of West 14th Street, near Wilson Avenue — and it agrees on the time, the alert, the injuries and the outcome. It does not agree on whether he was inside his office, in a parking lot, or in his car. The police statements relied on here do not settle the point: they say only that officers responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street and found a man with apparent gunshot wounds.

This file therefore does not state a precise scene. The distinction matters, because the scene is the difference between a man shot at his desk and a man shot as he reached his car, and a file that picked one account over the others without a police statement to support it would be guessing. The surveillance video the early reporting describes may settle the question when the case reaches court. Until then, the honest record is the block, the time, and the fact that the accounts disagree.

The man who tried to stop the shooting

Andre Thomas was 57, from Matteson, Illinois. He was the chief executive and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence-interruption organisation working to reduce gun violence across Chicago and the south suburbs. The organisation was formed in 2021. Before leading it, Thomas had worked with violence-prevention organisations including CeaseFire.

His own history was part of his work, and the people who knew him said so openly. He had served time in prison, and he had rebuilt his life through violence-interruption work, using his own experience to reach people the police and the outreach workers could not. He spoke at events about that history, including at a National Gun Violence Prevention Expo, and he wore the work on his clothing — shirts reading "CVI SAVES LIVES".

That history is why the killing landed the way it did in Chicago. A man who had spent his working life trying to stop the shooting was shot dead on a night when he had been out handing sweets to children. His family and colleagues said it plainly in the days that followed: the irony of it was the first thing people reached for, and the second thing was the loss. Nita Ragland, the mother of his two children, spoke of a man who had been the only father her children — aged 12 and 14 — had known, and of a loss she described as like being in a dream. Colleagues gathered for a balloon release in Englewood, in purple, white and black, and for a memorial on the streets where he had worked.

None of that is in the police record of the killing itself, and this file keeps the two things separate: the facts of the night are the police record; the account of who he was comes from the people who worked with him and loved him. What the two together establish is the shape of the loss — not only a man killed, but a man killed doing the work he had built his second life around.

Violence interruption is not policing. It is outreach by people with standing in the communities where shootings happen, who intervene before a dispute becomes a shooting. Thomas worked closely with law enforcement, but the work itself was the street work: showing up, talking, and being the person people would listen to. That is the context in which his death has to be understood — and in which the charge that followed has to be read, because the investigation that produced it was, by the police's own account, a week of work by more than one agency.

The arrest

For the first week after the killing, there was no arrest. CBS Chicago reported on the Sunday evening after the shooting that no arrests had been made. The Chicago Heights police, assisted by the Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, worked the case through that week, and the police later said the first week of the investigation resulted in the identification of multiple persons of interest, including Alex Morris.

On Friday 6 November 2026, Chicago Heights police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, with assistance from the Chicago Police Department, located Morris and arrested him without incident near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago. He is 54 years old and from Chicago.

Two days later, on Sunday 8 November 2026, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the facts of the investigation and approved a charge of first-degree murder against Morris. He was processed, and he is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026.

That is the full public record of the arrest and the charge. It is a short record, and its shortness is itself a fact worth noting. The police have said nothing, in any statement relied on here, about what evidence links Morris to the shooting, about whether the two men knew each other, about a motive, or about what the other persons of interest identified in the first week have to do with the case. They have said, in terms, that information about additional persons of interest and the specifics of the investigation will not be released at this time because the investigation remains ongoing.

What the police have not said

It is worth setting down, in one place, everything the police have not said, because the gaps are the shape of this case.

They have not said what the motive for the killing may have been. They have not said whether Andre Thomas and Alex Morris knew each other, or how. They have not said what evidence connects Morris to the shooting, or what role, if any, the other persons of interest identified in the first week play in the case. They have not said what happened in the hearing scheduled for Tuesday 10 November 2026 — whether Morris will enter a plea, whether he will be held in custody, or when he is next due before a court — because at the time this file was written, that hearing had not yet taken place. And they have not settled, in any statement relied on here, the precise scene of the shooting: office, parking lot, or parked car.

None of those gaps is unusual ten days into a murder investigation that has produced an arrest and a charge, and none of them is a criticism of the police. An investigation that has made an arrest in six days and brought a charge in nine is moving, and the gaps are the ordinary consequence of a case that is still being worked — and of a police decision, stated openly, not to release the specifics while the investigation continues. But a file that pretends the gaps are not there would be a worse record than a file that lists them.

What is still open

The most immediate open fact is the court process itself. Alex Morris is scheduled to appear in court in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026, charged with first-degree murder. What happens there — the plea, the custody decision, the next dates, the trial — has not been reported, because it has not happened yet. Until it is reported, the legal half of this file stays open. He is charged, not convicted, and he is presumed innocent, and that presumption holds until a court finds otherwise.

The second open fact is the motive, and with it the relationship, if any, between the two men named in this file. The police have not stated a motive and have not said whether Thomas and Morris knew each other. Until they do, or until the court record says more, any account of why a 57-year-old violence-interruption leader was shot dead in Chicago Heights is speculation, and this file carries none of it.

The third open fact is the scene. The reporting disagrees on whether Thomas was shot in his office, in a parking lot, or in his car. The police statements do not settle it. The surveillance video described in the early reporting, and the court record when it comes, may settle it. Until then, the file records the disagreement rather than choosing a side.

The fourth open fact is the other persons of interest. The police have said more than one was identified in the first week, and they have said they will not release information about them while the investigation continues. Whether anyone else is charged, or whether the case against Morris stands alone, is not in the public record.

The fifth open fact is the simplest one. A 57-year-old man who had spent his life trying to stop gun violence was shot dead on Halloween night in Chicago Heights, nine days before a man was charged with his murder. His children, aged 12 and 14, have lost the only father they had known. Until the charge is tested in court, and until the police say more about what happened on West 14th Street, the file stays open, and the stamp stays CHARGED.

TIMELINE

• Saturday 31 October 2026, evening: Andre Thomas spends part of Halloween in Englewood, Chicago, handing out sweets to young people and talking with residents, then heads to Chicago Heights to wait for his crew at his organisation's office. — KwachaSense, 6 November 2026 (read in full, via Mark Saint, interim executive director of Integrity & Fidelity); CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (family account, via search results).
• Saturday 31 October 2026, about 9:24–9:30 p.m.: Chicago Heights police respond to the 400 block of West 14th Street after a gunshot-detection alert. Officers find Thomas with gunshot wounds. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full); CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (9:24 p.m. response, via search results); Chicago Sun-Times, 2 November 2026 (found about 9:25 p.m., via search results).
• Saturday 31 October 2026, 10:02 p.m.: Thomas is pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The medical examiner rules his death a homicide. — Fox 32 Chicago, 1 November 2026 (read in search results); Heyday News, 4 November 2026 (read in full).
• Sunday 1 – Thursday 5 November 2026: No arrests are reported. The Chicago Heights police, assisted by the Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, investigate. Police ask residents and business owners to review security footage for activity between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. on 31 October. Community members gather for a balloon release in Englewood and a memorial. — CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (no arrests as of Sunday evening, via search results); Fox 32 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (read in search results); ABC 7 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (memorial, via search results).
• Friday 6 November 2026: Chicago Heights police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, with assistance from the Chicago Police Department, locate Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago, and arrest him without incident near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• Sunday 8 November 2026: The Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviews the facts of the investigation and approves a charge of first-degree murder against Morris. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• Monday 9 November 2026: Fox 32 Chicago reports the charge. The story is carried across Chicago news and social media the same day. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full); social.search, 10 November 2026 (Fox 32 Chicago, CrimeWatchChicago and others, 9 November 2026).
• Tuesday 10 November 2026 (scheduled): Morris is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham. No outcome has been reported at the time this file was written. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• As of Tuesday 10 November 2026: One person is dead. One man is charged with first-degree murder and is due in court. No plea, custody decision or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. No motive has been stated. The precise scene of the shooting is not settled in the public record. The investigation is ongoing. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026; Heyday News, 4 November 2026.

EVIDENCE & LEADS

• The shooting (Saturday 31 October 2026, about 9:24–9:30 p.m.): Chicago Heights police responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street after a gunshot-detection alert and found Andre Thomas, 57, of Matteson, with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, which ruled his death a homicide. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full); Fox 32 Chicago, 1 November 2026 (read in search results); Heyday News, 4 November 2026 (read in full).
• Who he was: Andre Thomas, 57, of Matteson, chief executive and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence-interruption organisation working in Chicago and the south suburbs, formed in 2021. Before leading it, he had worked with violence-prevention organisations including CeaseFire. He had served time in prison and rebuilt his life through violence-interruption work. — Fox 32 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (read in search results); Heyday News, 4 November 2026 (read in full); KwachaSense, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
• His last evening: Thomas spent part of Halloween in Englewood handing out sweets to young people and talking with residents, then went to Chicago Heights to wait for his crew. — KwachaSense, 6 November 2026 (read in full, via Mark Saint, interim executive director); CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (family account, via search results).
• The scene, not settled: the Chicago Sun-Times reported on 2 November that Thomas was found shot in his office, citing the police and the medical examiner's office; CBS Chicago's 1 November account described a parking-lot shooting with surveillance video near the block shortly before 9:30 p.m.; other reporting described him approaching or sitting in his parked car. The police statements relied on here say only that officers responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street. The draft states the disagreement and does not pick a version. — Heyday News, 4 November 2026 (read in full, setting out the conflict); CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (via search results); Chicago Sun-Times, 2 November 2026 (via search results).
• The arrest (Friday 6 November 2026): Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago, was located and arrested without incident near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago by Chicago Heights police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, with assistance from the Chicago Police Department. The first week of the investigation had resulted in the identification of multiple persons of interest, including Morris. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• The charge (Sunday 8 November 2026): the Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the facts of the investigation and approved a charge of first-degree murder against Morris. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• The court appearance (Tuesday 10 November 2026, scheduled): Morris is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham. No outcome has been reported at the time this file was written. — Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 (read in full).
• The appeal for footage: the Chicago Heights Police Department asked residents and area business owners to review security footage for activity between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, 31 October. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chicago Heights Detective Division at 708-756-6400. — Fox 32 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (read in search results).
• The community's response: colleagues and family gathered for a balloon release in Englewood and a memorial; Nita Ragland, the mother of Thomas's two children, aged 12 and 14, spoke of him as the only father the children had known. — ABC 7 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (balloon release, via search results); Heyday News, 4 November 2026 (read in full); CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (via search results).
• What is NOT evidence in this file: any account of a motive (not stated by the police); any account of whether Thomas and Morris knew each other (not stated); any account of what evidence links Morris to the shooting (not released); any account of the role of the other persons of interest identified in the first week (not released); any settled account of the precise scene of the shooting (the reporting disagrees — see above); any account of what will happen at the Markham court appearance (it had not taken place when this file was written); any claim from social-media comments about who is responsible, or about the relationship between the two men named here (NOT used — see the fact log).

Caption: Illustration of a suburban street at dusk — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.

STILL UNKNOWN

• What was the motive? The police have not stated a motive for the killing, in any statement relied on here.
• Did Andre Thomas and Alex Morris know each other? The police have not said whether the two men knew each other before the shooting, or what, if any, relationship existed between them.
• What evidence links Morris to the shooting? The police have not released the specifics of the investigation, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has not published the facts it reviewed when it approved the charge.
• Who are the other persons of interest? The police have said multiple persons of interest were identified in the first week of the investigation, including Morris. They have not named any other person, and they have said information about additional persons of interest will not be released while the investigation continues.
• Where exactly was Thomas shot? The reporting disagrees — his office, a parking lot, or his parked car — and the police statements relied on here do not settle it.
• What will happen at the Markham court appearance? Morris is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham on Tuesday 10 November 2026. No plea, custody decision or next hearing date has been publicly reported, because the appearance had not taken place when this file was written.
• What will happen to the charge against Alex Morris? He is charged with first-degree murder. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. No plea, attorney detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here.

What would change this file: if the police state a motive, or say whether Thomas and Morris knew each other; if the police release the evidence behind the charge, or name any further person charged; if the precise scene of the shooting is settled by the police or the court record; if a plea, custody decision or next hearing date is reported from the Markham court appearance; if the charge against Alex Morris is dropped, or a conviction follows; or if any further official statement is made about the case, this file will be updated with the date, the source, and the new stamp if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten. Until then, the stamp stays CHARGED.

If you have information: The Chicago Heights Police Department is investigating the death of Andre Thomas. Anyone with information — particularly security footage from the 400 block of West 14th Street between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, 31 October 2026 — is asked to contact the Chicago Heights Detective Division at 708-756-6400. Do not name people as suspects on social media — a man has been charged, he is presumed innocent, and the investigation is ongoing.

WATCH THE FULL STORY

No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.

SOURCES

• Fox 32 Chicago, 9 November 2026 — "Man charged with murder in Chicago Heights anti-violence advocate's death" (https://fox32chicago.com/news/man-charged-murder-chicago-heights-anti-violence-advocates-death, read in full, 9 November 2026): a 54-year-old Chicago man has been charged with first-degree murder in the Halloween shooting death of an anti-violence advocate in Chicago Heights; on 31 October 2026, just before 9:30 p.m., the Chicago Heights Police Department responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street following a gunshot detection alert; officers discovered a man with apparent gunshot wounds, who was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead; the Chicago Heights Police Department requested assistance from the Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force; the victim was Andre Thomas, 57, of Matteson, shot multiple times, who died of his injuries; the first week of the investigation resulted in the identification of multiple persons of interest, including Alex Morris, 54, of Chicago; on 6 November, Chicago Heights police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, with assistance from the Chicago Police Department, located Morris and arrested him without incident near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago; on 8 November, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the facts of the investigation and approved a charge of first-degree murder against Morris; Morris was processed and is scheduled to appear in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Sixth Municipal District in Markham on 10 November; police said information regarding additional persons of interest and specifics of the investigation will not be released at this time because the investigation remains ongoing.
• Fox 32 Chicago, 6 November 2026 — "Community honors Chicago anti-violence advocate killed on Halloween night" (https://fox32chicago.com/news/community-honors-chicago-anti-violence-advocate-killed-halloween-night, read in search results, 9 November 2026): Andre Thomas, 57, of Matteson, dedicated his life to preventing the very violence that claimed his own; just before 9:30 p.m. on 31 October, Chicago Heights police responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street after receiving a gunshot detection alert; officers found Thomas suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to a hospital, where he later died; the circumstances remain under investigation; Thomas was the CEO of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence intervention organization working to reduce gun violence across Chicago and the south suburbs; the Chicago Heights Police Department asked residents and area business owners to review security footage for activity between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, 31 October; anyone with information is asked to contact the Chicago Heights Detective Division at 708-756-6400.
• Fox 32 Chicago, 1 November 2026 — "Matteson man fatally shot on Halloween night in Chicago Heights" (https://fox32chicago.com/news/andre-thomas-chicago-heights-shooting, read in search results, 9 November 2026): a Matteson man was fatally shot in Chicago Heights on Halloween night; Chicago Heights police responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street around 9:24 p.m. on 31 October after receiving a gunshot detection alert; the Chicago Heights Fire Department took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, which identified him as 57-year-old Andre Thomas; Chicago Alderman David Moore said Thomas was the CEO and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence intervention agency; police had not said what led to the shooting or identified a suspect.
• Heyday News, 4 November 2026 — "Violence-prevention leader Andre Thomas killed in Chicago Heights" (https://heyday.news/articles/andre-thomas-chicago-heights-killing-violence-prevention-76c88cae, read in full, 9 November 2026): Thomas, 57, the CEO and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, died after a Halloween-night shooting in Chicago Heights; officers found him with multiple gunshot wounds in the 400 block of West 14th Street, and he died after being taken to an area hospital; the Cook County medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide; Integrity & Fidelity was formed in 2021; before leading it, Thomas had worked with violence-prevention organizations including Ceasefire; his family said he had spent Halloween handing out candy before heading to his office, where he was waiting for the rest of his crew; the reporting differs on whether he was shot inside his office or in a parking lot; the police response began at 9:24 p.m. on Saturday, 31 October 2026, after a SoundThinking gunshot-detection alert, according to the initial CBS Chicago account citing Chicago Heights police; the Sun-Times subsequently reported that Thomas was found around 9:25 p.m.; the Sun-Times reported on 2 November that Thomas was found shot in his office, citing police and the medical examiner's office; CBS Chicago's 1 November account described a parking-lot shooting and surveillance video near the same block shortly before 9:30 p.m.; the shooting happened in Chicago Heights, a separate municipality south of Chicago, not within the city where Thomas also worked; CBS Chicago reported no arrests as of Sunday evening, 1 November.
• KwachaSense, 6 November 2026 — "Andre Thomas dies in fatal Chicago Heights, Illinois shooting" (https://kwachasense.com/andre-thomas-dies-in-fatal-chicago-heights-illinois-shooting/, read in full, 9 November 2026): Andre Thomas, 57, was shot and killed on Halloween night in Chicago Heights, Illinois; he was found with gunshot wounds after police responded at about 9:30 p.m. to an alert near Wilson Avenue and 14th Street; Thomas later died from his injuries; he founded and led Integrity and Fidelity, a community violence intervention organization that works in Chicago and the south suburbs; Mark Saint, the organization's interim executive director, said Thomas spent part of Halloween in Englewood handing out candy to young people and connecting with residents; people who worked with Thomas said he spoke openly about his past, including time spent in prison, and used his experiences to motivate his efforts to help the community through violence prevention; police have not released further information about the circumstances of the shooting.
• CBS Chicago, 1 November 2026 (via search results, 9 November 2026): breaking report from Chicago Heights on the Halloween-night killing of Andre Thomas, a local violence-prevention leader; surveillance video captured Thomas approaching his parked car around 9:30 p.m.; the footage freezes before showing him being shot at close range; Nita Ragland, the mother of his children, spoke about raising their 12- and 14-year-old alone; family members said he had been handing out candy earlier that evening and was waiting for coworkers when attacked; the report notes he had rebuilt his life after prison through work with groups like CeaseFire. Corroboration only for the family account, the children, the candy, the prison history and the surveillance video; the scene description is treated as unsettled in this file (see the fact log).
• Chicago Sun-Times, 2 November 2026 (via search results, 9 November 2026): reported that Thomas was found shot in his office, citing police and the medical examiner's office, and that he was found around 9:25 p.m. Corroboration only; the scene description is treated as unsettled in this file (see the fact log).
• ABC 7 Chicago, 6 November 2026 (via search results, 9 November 2026): community mourning report on Andre Thomas, 57-year-old founder and CEO of Integrity & Fidelity, shot and killed on Halloween night in Chicago Heights; a memorial where a crowd releases purple, white, and black balloons. Corroboration only for the memorial.
• Social scan, 10 November 2026: social.search (Instagram/Threads/Facebook, engagement-ranked, since 7 November 2026) returned the Andre Thomas charge story as the top trending true-crime item — Fox 32 Chicago's 9 November post (2.7M followers), CrimeWatchChicago on Instagram and Facebook, Fox 32 Chicago on Threads, and All Things Chicago — all posted 9 November 2026, all carrying the murder charge against Alex Morris. The trending call for this pick rests on that social record plus the news record (Fox 32 Chicago charge report, 9 November 2026, with the court appearance scheduled for today, 10 November 2026), stated honestly here. No claim in this file rests on a social-media post alone. No search-volume numbers are stated anywhere in the draft, because no tool returned any.
• No competitor article text or image is reproduced in this file. Facts are stated in Dark History Files' own words, with official material attributed to its source. No source beyond those listed above was relied on for facts in the draft. No search-volume numbers are stated, because no tool returned any.

Caption: Illustration of an empty courtroom — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.

Reader question: Andre Thomas spent his second life trying to keep other people from being shot — and he was shot dead on a night he had spent handing out sweets to children. While the court case runs its course, what should change so that the people doing violence-interruption work are safer doing it?

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