Chicago men charged in November shooting of guard at River Oaks

The wife of the U.S. Army veteran slain a year ago while he worked as a security guard at a River Oaks Center in Calumet City said Friday the arrest and charges against two men are a “step in the right direction, a ray of hope” for her shattered family.

Frank Adkins and Maxx Walker, both 38, were arrested Monday in connection with the Nov. 16, 2022, shooting death of Norman Thomas, Calumet City police said. Both are being held in the Cook County Jail on first-degree murder charges.

“We just want justice to be served,” Syrall Thomas said Friday outside the Calumet City police station. “That is what our family deserves.”

Her husband served nine years in the Army, following the military service path of his father and grandfather, and had served in Operation Desert Storm.

Thursday was the anniversary of her husband’s death, and Thomas said she went to his graveside at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in far southwest suburban Elwood.

“I told him justice will prevail,” she said.

Police and prosecutors say three men entered the mall, at the southeast corner of 159th Street and Torrence Avenue, wearing masks and brandishing firearms, as the 57-year-old Blue Island man was working security at Flawless Diamonds.

Thomas attempted to stop the trio from entering the store by raising his firearm, but was shot multiple times, according to a prosecution filing presented at the initial court appearance for Adkins and Walker.

Calumet City police Chief Kevin Kolosh called Thomas’ killing a “senseless and vicious act of violence,” and said the arrests don’t end the investigation.

“We’re not done here,” Kolosh said. “There’s more work that needs to be done.”

Walker and a woman with whom he has a child were taken into custody the day after the shooting by police, according to the prosecution’s filing. They were both later released, police said Friday.

Syrall Thomas said the family has been buoyed by its faith.

“We know that there’s a higher power and this is all going to work out in the end for the better,” she said.

She said the last 12 months have been very difficult.

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“It’s a very hurtful feeling that you don’t have your spouse with you anymore,” she said.

Thomas said both she and her husband each worked two jobs, and her husband “loved his family to death.”

Erykah Thomas, the youngest of Thomas’ two daughters, said her father’s death has “been a mind-numbing experience,” and that her father not only loved his family but was “very loved by anybody that encountered him.”

She said her father often remarked about how he was impressed by her resiliency, but Thomas said that “this is a hard one to bounce back from.”

She said she did not want her father’s death to define who he was.

“He is more than just a news story,” she told reporters. “He was a person, he was my father.”

mnolan@tribpub.com

Originally Published: Nov 17, 2023 at 12:01 pm