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Chicago Man Beaten To Death While Hanging Christmas Lights With Daughter
Jose Eleazar Téllez was beaten by unknown assailants on Saturday evening as he and his daughter tried to brighten their house with a little holiday spirit.
One Chicago family is in mourning after two unknown men attacked their a loved one as he attempted to hang Christmas lights.
Jose Eleazar Téllez, 49, had gone outside his home in Gage Park — about two miles east of Chicago's Midway Airport — around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday to hang Christmas lights, police told Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ, when he was approached by two men "who were armed with blunt objects." The two men hit him repeatedly as his daughter reportedly witnessed the violent act.
A neighbor working on her own Christmas decorations heard Téllez's daughter scream, she told the Chicago Sun Times, and ran across the street.
"'My dad, my dad, he’s hurt,'" she was crying, the neighbor told the paper. "I told her to get a blanket to put on his head. There was a lot of blood."
He still had the Christmas lights in his hand.
The neighbor said she stayed with the girl and did what she could until the ambulance arrived, but, though Téllez was breathing, he wasn't moving.
Another neighbor told Telemundo that two of Téllez's three children were outside at the time, helping to hang Christmas lights.
The ambulance took Téllez to the Christ Medical Center in nearby Oak Lawn. He was pronounced dead there at 10:32 p.m., according to the Sun Times.
Police have not made any arrests in the case or identified any suspects.
Téllez's niece, Daisy Castro, has organized a GoFundMe to help the family pay for funeral expenses. She writes that her uncle is survived by his wife and three children.
"He was a loving husband, father, brother and son," she explained on the page, which had raised more than $18,000 at the time of publication.
Téllez's neighbors in the tight-knit community have additionally organized a neighborhood watch, another neighbor, Silverio Nodal, told the Sun-Times.
"Something must be done, should be done," Nodal said, noting the residents are pulling together a contact list to help report anything suspicious. "It’s not only the police work. We as individuals, what can we do for our neighbors, what are we contributing?"
