A grieving family is desperately seeking answers over a month after their loved one was tragically shot downtown.
According to Chicago police, Princeton Miller became embroiled in a dispute with two men in the West Loop last month, which resulted in one suspect fatally shooting him.
Miller, known both as a DJ and a model, left behind a family now urging witnesses to share any valuable information. They shared their distressing experience with ABC7 Chicago on Friday.
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The tragic shooting occurred in a lively area of the West Loop, where Miller was celebrating his younger brother Robert Hunter’s birthday. This joyous occasion turned into heartbreak when an altercation abruptly led to gunfire, claiming Miller’s life.
“My brother would always joke and say, ‘You’re not ready for the world, baby bro,’” Hunter recalled. “Little did I know, I wasn’t prepared for a world without him.”
Just moments after capturing a cherished photo together, their lives were forever changed by the sudden loss.
At night time, she cries for her daddy. ‘I want my daddy. Why my daddy is not here? Why is he with God?
Irma Miller, victim’s widow
“A night that was filled with joy just turned into tragedy,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s birthday celebration ended in bloodshed after his older brother, Miller, was gunned down right in front of their cousin as Hunter waited for them at a nearby bar. It happened in the early morning hours of September 21 near Halsted and Lake in the West Loop.
Miller’s family says he was standing outside, waiting for an Uber ride, when he got into an argument with two men, he did not know, who were in a car. One of them then pulled out a gun.
“Had it been the person he had the altercation with it may have been different, but the driver was not in danger of Princeton,” his grandmother Odessa Johnson said. “He’s the one that pulled the trigger. He endangered his passenger as well as shooting Princeton.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” his sister Paris’sa Boston said. “He was not an imminent threat to you, or anybody. And, you had no regard for life at that point.”
Police say the two drove off while the 38-year-old was shot in his chest and later died at the hospital.
The victim leaves behind his 3-year-old daughter and two stepdaughters, wife, younger siblings, and parents, just as his passions for modeling and DJing were flourishing. His family home is now left hollow.
“At night time, she cries for her daddy. ‘I want my daddy. Why my daddy is not here? Why is he with God?,’” his widow Irma Miller said.
A spokesperson for CPD confirmed to ABC7 Friday that two men were taken in for questioning but were later released without charges as the investigation continues.
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