Damian Dunning was gushing about his nephew’s basketball prospects about half an hour before he was shot to death on the Stevenson Expressway over the weekend, according to his brother.
Roy Shannon, 48, said his last conversation with Dunning, 41, captured his brother’s essence as an enthusiastic father and uncle who took his 7-year-old son to every piano and karate practice and loved to shop for his nieces and nephews.
“I wish I’d stayed on the phone with him and this might not have happened,” Shannon said.
Illinois State Police said state troopers found Dunning, of west suburban Bellwood, shot in a car around 10:20 p.m. Sunday near the turnoff to DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Dunning was pronounced dead soon after, state police said. No arrests have been announced.
Dunning delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service for about eight years before his death, traveling a route near Midway Airport, Shannon said.
He could not understand why someone would attack his brother. “He would have given you the shirt off his back, he wasn’t into it with anyone, he wasn’t arguing with anyone.”
Nor did he think his brothers’ killers understood the consequences of their actions. “All this senseless crime … it’s hurting people (shooters) don’t know about,” he said.
Dunning’s son realizes that “his dad is gone and he’s never coming back,” Shannon said. “He understands.”
“This guy had a responsibility to take care of his son, he was working on his music app — the music app was about to do really well,” he said.
Dunning started Geeq Music, intended as a cross between a music streaming service and a social network, in February 2022, according to state records. Shannon said his brother had been planning to travel to Texas to begin getting the project off the ground at the time of his death.
This is the second gun death in Dunning’s extended family in a month, according to Shannon. Their cousin, Loyce Wright, was shot and killed while working security at an Austin dollar store in February. A third relative was critically injured in an unrelated shooting on 93rd Street that took place the same night as Dunning’s death, Shannon said.
Shannon described the pair of killings as “unreal.” He said aside from giving Dunning a good burial, an apology from the person who attacked Dunning “would be nice.”
“We can forgive you, but the thing is that it’s not going to bring my brother back,” he said.
