The Duck Walk Killer
The Duck Walk Killer is an unidentified “spree killer” who shot and killed two innocent men at random, in Rogers Park, a mere 36 hours apart. He was given the name “The Duck Walk Killer” by the media due to the odd gate he has when walking that can be seen in the surveillance footage.
The following video was released to the public shortly after the murders took place, and show the suspect wearing a mask, and all-black clothes, walking past the camera. Before it cuts to another video of the same man running from the scene of the crime. And pay attention to his gate, notice that his “duck-like” walk appears to be much more pronounced when he runs.
The first victim was 73-year-old Douglass Watts an openly homosexual man who lived in Rogers Park. He was outside walking his dogs on September 30th, 2018 when around 10 am, the man in the video above approached him from behind and shot him at point-blank range in the back of the head before fleeing the scene.
His body was found shortly after by his neighbor who quickly called the police. At first, authorities thought the motive was a robbery but they quickly ruled that out since he was found with all of his belongings still on him.
The second victim was Eliyahu Moskowitz, a 24-year-old Orthodox Jew who was also shot in the back of the head, also at point-blank range while walking only a few miles away from the first scene, only 36 hours later.
Eliyahu was an avid Pokémon Go player and was likely playing the game at the time he was killed. And in memorial of his death, over 100 of his friends on Pokémon Go gathered in his honor.
Almost immediately after the second shooting took place, local residents began to panic and fear began to spread throughout the community. Police were brought in to patrol the area hoping to find the killer before he could strike again.
Since the perpetrator was only caught on camera during the murder of Douglass Watts, investigators couldn’t be 100% sure the two shootings were linked despite their suspicions. Investigators were able to determine the shell casings from both shootings came from the same gun and the murders were then conclusively linked.
During the height of the investigation over 40 detectives were working on the case, but, by February of the following year, leads almost completely stopped coming in and investigators were left with very little to go on. At one point in the investigation, authorities did have a suspect, but he had a solid alibi and nothing further ever publicly came of that.
There were multiple witnesses that came forward saying they saw the suspect walking around earlier that day, but again nothing else has ever come out about this. And it’s likely the witnesses weren’t able to give detectives much since it’s been 3 years and the cases still remain unsolved.
No motive was ever determined in either of these cases, though it was theorized by some that these were hate crimes. Since Watts was openly homosexual, and Moskowitz was an Orthodox Jew who dressed in traditional Jewish attire and had a long beard. However, this theory has been pretty much ruled out since Rogers Park is notoriously a very liberal community.
The community of Rogers Park has raised a $150,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the capture of The Duck Walk Killer. And this is the largest reward ever raised by Chicago to catch a killer.
If you or anyone you know has any information about this case, please contact the Chicago Police Department.
Sources:
https://abc7chicago.com/rogers-park-chicago-shooting-killer/6677892/
