A gunman carrying a long gun sprinted across West Chicago Avenue in broad daylight after fatally shooting 32-year-old Corey Finley near a gas station driveway on May 3, 2022, and for more than four years, a five-second video of the killing has circulated online without an official appeal from Chicago police to identify the shooter. Now, Chicago police are finally asking the public for help.
The shooting happened around 10:41 a.m. on the 3700 block of West Chicago Avenue in Humboldt Park, according to NBC 5 Chicago, which reported that police released the video this week seeking the public's help identifying the gunman. But the clip itself is nothing new to anyone who has been paying attention. As CWB Chicago reported, the same five-second video of the lethal attack had already been posted and shared online since May 2022, raising the obvious question of why it took police more than four years to issue a public alert and ask for help identifying the shooter.
CPD has not offered an explanation for the delay, the outlet noted. Investigators described the suspect as a Black male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a black facemask, and black pants with side stripes and black shoes, who fired shots before fleeing on foot toward Hamlin Avenue while still holding the long gun in plain view.
Case Falls Under Area Four Cold-Case Detectives
The 3700 block of West Chicago Avenue sits within the Chicago Police Department's 11th (Harrison) District, and cold-case homicide investigations like this one are directed by Area Four Detectives, who handle violent crime cases across multiple West Side neighborhoods, according to the Chicago Police Department. Police are advising residents to alert family and friends in the area and to save any copies of surveillance video that might help detectives. Those with information are asked to call detectives at 312-746-8252 or submit an anonymous tip online at CPDTIP.com, referencing number JF228530. Police said they had no additional information immediately available.
Tipsters who come forward through Cook County Crime Stoppers or CPDTIP.com in unsolved homicide cases can remain completely anonymous and qualify for cash rewards up to $10,000, per the same CWB Chicago account, with reward funds distributed through confidential code numbers that do not require court testimony.
Humboldt Park's Long Struggle With Gun Violence
Finley's killing adds to a grim tally in a neighborhood that has borne an outsized share of Chicago's gun violence. Humboldt Park recorded 839 fatal and non-fatal shooting victims between 2018 and 2022, placing its gun violence rate at 152.5 victims per 10,000 residents, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. That data places the community area among the highest in the city for shooting incidents during that stretch, the same period that includes Finley's death.
The case also lands amid a broader citywide trend of falling homicide numbers. Chicago recorded 416 homicides in 2025, its lowest annual total since 1965, representing a 29% decrease from 2024, and citywide homicides dropped another 3% through the first nine months of 2026 compared to the prior year, according to WTTW News. Yet even as overall numbers fall, older unsolved cases like Finley's illustrate a persistent gap between declining violence and resolving past crimes.
Chicago Police reported a 71% homicide clearance rate in 2025, but research from the University of Chicago Crime Lab indicates the city has historically maintained among the lowest clearance rates for fatal and non-fatal shootings of any major U.S. city, a pattern researchers say contributes to cycles of unprosecuted violent crime. Public appeals in cold cases like Finley's, years after the fact, underscore just how much of that gap remains unresolved.
Long-Gun Weapon Draws Added Scrutiny Under State Law
The weapon seen in the video — a long gun carried openly in daylight — also places the case against the backdrop of Illinois' recent legislative and legal fights over such firearms. In January 2023, the state passed the Protect Illinois Communities Act, enacting a statewide ban on the manufacture, sale, and distribution of semi-automatic rifles and long guns, according to the Giffords Law Center, which noted that existing owners were required to register legacy assault weapons with state police.
That ban survived a significant legal test this year. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 ruling in July 2026 upholding Illinois' ban on semi-automatic long guns and high-capacity magazines as constitutional under the Second Amendment, per the Madison-St. Clair Record, though gun rights groups have pledged to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
For now, the person who gunned down Corey Finley on a Humboldt Park sidewalk more than four years ago remains unidentified, and detectives are counting on the same video that has circulated online since 2022 to finally bring someone forward with a name.
