A deranged driver told his victims, “I’ve got something for you, motherfuckers,” before mowing down three men and killing them outside a gay bar in Chicago.
Tavis Dunbar, 34, was charged with three counts of first degree murder after turning himself in Monday following the deaths of Jaylen Ausley, 23, Devonta Vivetter, 27, and Donald Huey, 25, outside Jeffery Pub around 5 a.m. on Aug. 14.
A fourth man, Carlee McKinney, 21, was seriously injured after Dunbar plowed up the car he had borrowed at 5 a.m.
At this time, it is not considered a hate crime, as there is currently no evidence to suggest that he did so “on the basis of sexual orientation, race, creed or anything else,” Chicago Chief Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference.
Videos circulating on social media show Dunbar yelling the sordid statement before hitting 100km/h down the road in his cousin’s car before hitting a group of people who were fighting . The video reportedly shows bodies being flung into the air, with at least one of them landing a block away.
“The defendant essentially stepped on the accelerator and drove straight into four people, killing three of them,” said Cook County Assistant State Attorney Danny Hanichak.
“At least 99 percent of the accelerator is pressed and the defendant never touched the brake before the collision.”
Tavis Dunbar 34, of Chicago, has been charged with three counts of first degree murder after turning himself in Monday
After the crash, the attacker reportedly parked his car steps away and saw bears pacing around the car while on the phone with a friend who lived nearby. He is said to have gone to that friend’s house, who then drove him to another friend’s house.
He was kicked out of the bar and totaled his cousin’s cars after people “started coming to him,” Hanichak said.
But authorities have said there is currently no evidence that Dunbar has been threatened.
The friend later saw video of the attack online and realized it was Dunbar, according to CWB Chicago. When she confronted him about it, he asked her for an alibi. She refused, citing the fact that he had killed two people.
“Actually, there are three,” he corrected her.
Police announced that they do not know Dunbar’s motive and that he had invoked the Fifth Amendment.
Dunbar’s attorney, Robert Kerr, said prosecutors will have “a difficult time proving the case.”
“My fear here is that the state is going too far on charges of first degree murder,” Kerr said, according to the report. Chicago Sun Times. “And that Mr. Dunbar is being wrongfully held without any possibility of bail.”
He also insisted that his client – who is being held without bail – is “neither a flight risk nor a danger to society.”
“Rather than fleeing jurisdiction as one with a guilty conscience might, Mr Dunbar has arranged to surrender peacefully,” he argued.
The incident took place outside Jeffery Pub in Chicago’s South Side
On August 14, a group of men were seen arguing outside Jeffery’s Pub before Dunbar beat them
Bodies can be seen flying off the top of the car after Dunbar hit them at 100 km/h
Despite that, Huey’s sister said she was relieved that Dunbar was currently behind bars and not “just wandering around here thinking it’s cool that he killed all these people.”
Ausley’s mother also said it was “comfortable to know that we are so much closer to justice.”
She remembers her son, who recently graduated from the University of Michigan, as easy going and someone who loved to dance and laugh.
It was also revealed that Dunbar had been sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting his 11-year-old brother in 2012. He was also charged with hitting someone on the head with a baseball bat during an argument over money in 2007.