A woman found fatally wounded Thursday morning had received an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend a month before the two were found dead in her North Lawndale apartment, according to court records and family members.
Authorities said Tanisha Weeks, 41, and Timothy Gibbs, 35, were found dead in her apartment in the 4100 block of West Grenshaw Street around 7:30 a.m. with gunshot wounds to the head. Weeks’ mother, Katie Gibbs, said that Gibbs had been “threatening everyone” in the weeks leading up to the deaths.
Court records detail Weeks’ increasing fear for herself and her two children’s safety over the course of a roughly five-year relationship that ended last November.
Police officers serving Gibbs with the order of protection found that he had failed to register as a violent offender from a 2010 attempted murder conviction, according to court records. Officers arrested Gibbs on Nov. 28 and Judge William Fahy ordered him released on probation the same day, records show. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case on Dec. 2.
In an affidavit dated Nov. 27, Weeks said she and Gibbs had been dating since March 2019. Three days after the couple broke up, Weeks said Gibbs “pulled out a gun and made (her) sit on the couch.”
He strangled her with one hand, causing a chain around her neck to break, threatened to “shoot (her) and watch (her) bleed out” and put a gun to her head while speaking to her, according to the affidavit.
“He said that he did not want to have to kill me in the same place my daughter has to live,” Weeks wrote in the affidavit.
When Weeks did not answer a question in the way that Gibbs wanted, she wrote that “he fired his gun, causing a bullet to hit the couch to the left of where (she) was sitting” and jabbed her in the face hard enough to break her glasses.
Gibbs then forced Weeks to drive him to a West Side convenience store and threatened to “kill everyone in the store … if (she) said anything to anyone,” according to the affidavit. Gibbs then made Weeks drive him home, made her sit on his couch and kept his gun within reach, she wrote.
Weeks wrote that Gibbs had physically abused her about six times over the course of their five-year relationship, including “holding (her) down on his bed to prevent (her) from leaving and strangling (her).”
Days before he threatened to kill her, Weeks wrote, Gibbs had accused her of cheating on him and again attempted to strangle her. He left to get a gun and forced her to stay with him until the following morning at his home.
The next day, he called her about 20 times, she wrote, and threatened to send explicit photos of her to other family members when she ended their relationship.
Weeks was granted an emergency order of protection the same day she filed her petition and Domestic Violence Court Judge Jonathan Clark Green granted a final order, good for two years, on Dec. 18, records show. The order required Gibbs to participate in a domestic violence partner abuse program, an alcohol and drug use evaluation and undergo a mental health evaluation.
Weeks had two children and an orange cat named Sosa, records show. She lived next door to her mother, and had been leaving to go to work when Timothy Gibbs shot her, Katie Gibbs said.
Katie Gibbs said her daughter had been a teacher for about 15 years, working with pre-K through second grade students at three schools over her career.
“She was a great teacher, a great mother, a good wife and daughter,” said Katie Gibbs, 66. “She believed in God. She attended church.”
The protection order mandated that Timothy Gibbs stay away from the school where Weeks taught in Garfield Park and her church, in Grand Crossing.
Officials at the LEARN Charter School Campbell Campus didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Weeks’ death is at least the fifth domestic-related slaying of 2025, according to police and court records.
Sam Charles contributed to this report.