Authorities have charged a Berwyn man with murder nearly two years after a toddler was shot to death in a road rage incident in Chicago’s West Lawn neighborhood.
Govanni Hernandez, 32, faces three counts of first-degree murder for allegedly opening fire on a car in the 4400 block of West Marquette Road on the Southwest Side in September 2022, killing 3-year-old Mateo Zastro.
CPD Chief of Detectives Antoinette Ursitti told reporters Thursday that Hernandez had been targeting the woman driving the car, but instead shot her son Mateo, who was riding in the car with his three siblings.
Ursitti said detectives used DNA recovered from the vehicle involved in the shooting, which took until last August to process. It took nearly another year of investigation for detectives to gather enough evidence to arrest Hernandez.
He was arrested Tuesday and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office approved felony charges Thursday, Ursitti said. Hernandez’s arrest was a step toward “justice for a grieving mother who should be watching her son grow up” as well as the boy’s siblings and other loved ones, Ursitti said.
“While we know this will not bring Mateo back, we hope this brings a measure of closure,” she said. “We never forgot Mateo or his family,”
Hernandez is set to appear Friday for a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, according to police.