Several high-profile criminal cases tied to violence in Oak Park have been progressing through the Cook County court system.
According to county records, several people awaiting charges stemming from Oak Park murder and attempted murder investigations will appear in court in the coming weeks as their cases move along.
Jerrell Thomas
The fatal shooting of Oak Park Police Department Detective Allan Reddins shocked the Oak Park community in November 2024.
Reddins was killed in Downtown Oak Park while responding to reports of an armed person at a local bank the morning of Nov. 29, 2024. Oak Park investigators identified Chicago man Jerell Thomas, 37, as the one responsible for the detective’s murder.
Thomas faces 56 total felony charges including first-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder in connection with the killing, as Cook County prosecutors seek life-imprisonment for him.
Thomas had reportedly stolen the gun used to kill Reddins from a family member a few days earlier.
Reddins was the first Oak Park police officer to die in the line of duty since 1938.
Thomas received a court-ordered psychological evaluation a little over one month after his arrest, but the court’s record shows several more mental fitness evaluations in recent months.
He is scheduled to be evaluated by a forensic psychiatrist from Northwestern Medicine on Friday, Feb. 6. He was last evaluated by psychiatrists on Dec. 15, 2025, according to court records.
The next status hearing in the case is set for the morning of Feb. 11 at the Cook County Criminal Division Court Building in Chicago.
Oak Park officials described Thomas at the time of his arrest as “a habitual criminal.” He had been convicted of two counts of aggravated battery against two Chicago police officers in connection with a 2019 incident. He was let out under supervised release after he pled guilty in 2022, given credit for 957 days served in county custody.
He’d also been arrested in connection with several violent domestic incidents, including one in Oak Park in 2007.
Jabari McGee
Oak Park police took several suspects into custody when Corey Gates, a 54-year-old military veteran from South Holland, was shot and killed during an attempted carjacking in the 600 block of South Boulevard in Oak Park during the early morning hours of April 4.
One man, 20-year-old Jabari McGee, was ultimately charged with first-degree murder for Gates’ killing. McGee had a pending drug trafficking charge at the time of his arrest, according to court records.
Gates has been in custody at Cook County Detention Lockup in Maywood since his arrest for Gates’ fatal shooting.
The next court date in his case is set for March 16.
Miles Brooks
The third pending Oak Park first-degree murder case involves a man accused of killing his brother in a Ridgeland Avenue apartment building.
Oak Park police responded to reports of a shooting at a home in the 400 block of South Ridgeland Avenue at approximately 1:47 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2. Responding officers found 26-year-old Anthony Brooks unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head before Oak Park Fire Department paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene shortly after, according to a village spokesperson.
Police took the victim’s brother Miles Brooks, 23, into custody at the scene. The caller who reported the shooting had told police that the younger Brooks had shot his brother in the head following an altercation inside of their shared home, according to the village.
Brooks has pled not guilty to his murder charges. He’s in custody at Cook County Detention Lockup in Maywood and will appear in court next on March 11.
Lisa Wolfe
An Oak Park woman’s attempted murder case arrest will hinge on how much the judge values the defendant’s claim of self-defense, which could be supported by a series of previous domestic violence complaints.
Police arrested Lisa Wolfe, a 65-year-old Oak Park woman, on charges of attempted murder, domestic battery and aggravated battery on Oct. 25, 2024 in connection with an incident that occurred roughly a month earlier, according to Oak Park police.
On Sept. 23, 2024, Wolfe reportedly called 911 and said that she’d been attacked in her apartment and that “someone had been stabbed.” When Oak Park police arrived on the scene, Wolfe allegedly confessed to stabbing a man with a kitchen knife, according to police reports included in her Cook County case file.
As the victim was being taken out on a stretcher, Wolfe reportedly yelled “I hope you die,” according to the police report.
The victim had previously been charged with domestic battery against Wolfe on multiple occasions, but each of those charges were dropped shortly after the cases were filed, according to Cook County records. Wolfe’s attorney recently filed a motion asking that evidence from eight different domestic battery complaints filed against the person she’d been accused of stabbing victim in recent years be considered in the case.
Wolfe had reportedly called Oak Park police days before the stabbing and said that the man had threatened to kill her, according to a previous filing by her attorney.
She was granted pretrial release on the charges and will appear in court next on Feb. 18.
Kayla Harper
A Chicago woman accused of stabbing a man in the face at an Oak Park CTA station over the summer appeared in court earlier this week.
Kayla Harper, 31, is accused of stabbing a Chicago man in the face at the Oak Park Avenue Green Line station shortly before 11 p.m. the night of July 7, 2025.
She appeared in court for a discovery hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 3 and remains in county custody in Maywood.
Lissette Chavez
Chicago homicide detectives arrested a Galewood woman in Oak Park recently in connection with a year-old attempted murder case stemming from a shooting on the city’s Northwest side.
CPD investigators arrested 23-year-old Lissette Chavez on charges of attempted first degree murder after being identified as the suspect in the March 19, 2025 shooting of a 25-year-old woman 6100 block of North Karlov Avenue in Chicago. Chavez was brought into custody in the 200 block of Harlem Avenue in Oak Park last week on Jan. 27, not far from her home according to court records.
Chavez was granted pretrial release at her first court appearance on Friday, Jan. 30. She’ll appear in court next on Feb. 20.
