A 55-year-old man who was shot on West Van Buren Street in June has died from his injuries nearly two months later, and Chicago police say no one has been arrested. David Allen, of the 6000 block of South Stony Island Avenue, died early Sunday at University of Illinois Hospital, where he had been taken after the shooting.
Allen was shot on June 16 in the 3400 block of West Van Buren Street on Chicago's West Side, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He died at 1:33 a.m. Sunday from complications of the gunshot wound, per the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, which conducted an autopsy Monday and ruled his death a homicide. Chicago Police Department Area 4 Detectives are investigating both the shooting and the death; as of now, no arrests have been made.
Because Allen's death came weeks after the initial shooting, the case now falls under Illinois's rules for prosecuting delayed-death homicides. First-degree murder carries no statute of limitations in Illinois under 720 ILCS 5/3-5, according to Whiteside & Goldberg, meaning prosecutors can pursue charges once a suspect is identified, regardless of how much time passed between the shooting and the medical examiner's homicide ruling.
A Familiar Stretch of West Van Buren Street
Allen's shooting happened just blocks from another violent incident that struck the same corridor only weeks earlier. In May, a 55-year-old man was shot in the leg during an armed robbery in an alley behind the adjacent 3500 block of West Van Buren Street, and a 35-year-old suspect was later arrested in West Town and charged with armed robbery and weapons violations, Hoodline reported in its earlier coverage, Chicago Man Charged After West Side Robbery Shooting. Whether Allen was targeted or caught up in broader street violence on that block remains an open question.
The corridor's troubles didn't end with Allen's case. Just weeks after he was shot, another fatal shooting struck the same stretch on July 5, when a 33-year-old man was found shot to death on a sidewalk in the 4300 block of West Van Buren Street, minutes after two separate nearby shootings in Garfield Park left seven people wounded. Area detectives have also investigated other recent West Garfield Park violence, including a fatal shooting in a nearby alley near Polk Street and an SUV ambush in late July.
Citywide Numbers Tell a Mixed Story
Allen's death arrives amid a complicated crime picture for Chicago. The city recorded 416 homicides in 2025, a 29% drop from 2024 and its lowest annual total since 1965, with 42 of those homicides occurring in the 11th Police District covering West Garfield Park, according to Austin Weekly News. That district had recorded 53 homicides in 2024 and 80 in 2023, reflecting a multi-year decline in West Side gun violence.
But 2026 has told a different story so far. Citywide homicides rose 8.3% during the first four months of the year, climbing to 130 incidents from 120 during the same span in 2025, per Fox 32 Chicago. A Council on Criminal Justice report examining mid-year data across 36 major cities found Chicago homicides up 3% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, even as 10 of 13 tracked crime categories in the city saw year-over-year drops.
Police clearance rates offer a somewhat brighter counterpoint. The Chicago Police Department closed 74% of its homicide investigations in 2025, its highest clearance rate in more than a decade, according to Illinois Policy, with department leadership crediting repeat-offender strategies and technology centers. Researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab note that historically low clearance rates in urban areas can erode community trust and fuel retaliatory violence, underscoring the stakes as Area 4 detectives work to identify who shot Allen.
Nationally, homicides fell by roughly 18% in 2025, pushing the U.S. rate down to about 4.2 per 100,000 people, the lowest documented figure since 1960, per the Pew Charitable Trusts. Criminologists cited in that research point to federal safety grants and community intervention programs as drivers behind the multi-year national decline. For now, Allen's death adds another name to Chicago's 2026 homicide count, with the investigation still open and no suspects publicly identified.
