Andre Thomas became one of the south suburbs' most visible anti-violence leaders. On Halloween night, that work ended in gunfire outside his own organization's reach, when the 57-year-old Matteson man was shot and killed in Chicago Heights.
Officers responded to the 400 block of West 14th Street around 9:24 p.m. on Oct. 31 and found Thomas suffering from gunshot wounds, according to FOX 32 Chicago. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide, caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
Thomas was CEO and executive director of Integrity & Fidelity, a community violence intervention organization serving parts of Chicago and the south suburbs hit hardest by gun violence, per the Sun-Times. Chicago's 17th Ward Alderman David Moore, in a statement on Facebook, called Thomas's death “an unimaginable loss for family, friends, colleagues and communities he touched,” and said he was processing the violence with a heavy heart.
The Investigation
Police have not said what led to the shooting or identified a suspect, CBS News Chicago reported.
Chicago Heights police are asking residents and business owners to check surveillance video recorded between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. on the night of the shooting. The department requested assistance from Illinois State Police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force as the investigation continues, per the station's report.
An Organization Built to Stop Exactly This
Integrity & Fidelity describes itself as a Community Violence Intervention organization dedicated to reducing gun violence among Chicago's inner-city and south suburban residents, according to the group's own website. Its team of trained violence interrupters and outreach professionals serve as what the organization calls credible messengers, intervening in high-risk situations and mediating conflicts before they escalate into gunfire. The group also runs victim services, offering survivors comfort, access to compensation and trauma-informed pathways toward healing, per Integrity & Fidelity's services page.
Integrity & Fidelity has said the gun-violence rate in the communities it serves runs about 35 per 100,000 people, seven times the national average, according to the organization. Thomas himself spoke publicly about the roots of that violence, saying investment in affected communities would help reduce it. “No one with a 40-hour job is going out and shooting and killing,” he said, per the Sun-Times.
A Pattern Hitting Violence Interrupters Across Chicago
Thomas's killing is not an isolated case among people doing this work. Courtney Harris, a Chicago violence interrupter known as “Whodi” who worked to keep young people away from violence in South Shore, was killed in a shooting, and no arrests had been made when CBS News Chicago published its account in September. In Little Village, four men — including two New Life Centers staff members and a peacekeeper — were shot outside the organization's offices after a white sedan pulled up and someone inside opened fire before fleeing, Block Club Chicago reported. Another New Life Centers peacekeeper was fatally shot the following Saturday in an off-duty, unrelated incident, according to that outlet. New Life Centers has run street-outreach programs in Little Village for 20 years, mediating conflicts and supporting victims of violence, per Block Club Chicago's reporting.
The Broader Numbers Behind the Violence
Thomas's death comes even as homicide levels have been falling across much of the region. The south and southwest suburbs saw a 35% decrease in homicides in 2025 compared with 2024, and Cook County recorded 541 homicides last year, down from 792 in 2024 and far below the 1,094 that marked the county's 2021 peak, according to the Chicago Tribune. Chicago Heights itself had three reported homicides in 2025, the newspaper's analysis found.
No suspect has been identified in Thomas's killing, and investigators have not said what led to the shooting. For now, the loss is being felt most acutely among the colleagues and community members who relied on him to talk people down from violence rather than count its victims.
