{"id":750952,"date":"2026-04-24T23:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/750952\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:54:15","slug":"little-village-vendor-killed-in-shooting-remembered-as-devoted-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/750952\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Village vendor killed in shooting remembered as \u2018devoted father\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Little Village street vendor was working just a few feet away from his wife and baby Wednesday afternoon when he was killed in a shooting that also wounded three women.<\/p>\n<p>Antonio \u201cCoco\u201d Padilla, 46, is being remembered as a beloved vendor in Little Village who was a \u201cdevoted father to [five children], brother and a cherished friend to many,\u201d his family wrote in a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-for-antonio-padillas-family?cdn-cache=0\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GoFundMe<\/a> created to raise funeral expenses.<\/p>\n<p>The shooting happened about 4:30 p.m. near  26th Street and St. Louis Avenue, according to Chicago police. Police released no other details and did not provide any motive.<\/p>\n<p>Estella Aguilera works at a nearby bridal shop with her mother and was helping a customer at the counter Wednesday when they heard \u201ca lot of popping noises,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI looked at my mom and was like, \u2018That was not fireworks.\u2019 And then she said, \u2018Lock the door, lock the door,\u2019\u201d Aguilera said.<\/p>\n<p>A couple minutes later, Aguilera went outside and \u201csaw people on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when Aguilera heard Padilla\u2019s wife cry out his name and realized that during the shooting, she and their 1-year-old boy had been in Padilla\u2019s truck, parked next to his fruit cart on 26th Street.<\/p>\n<p>Padilla was shot several times and pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The three women who were shot were taken to Mount Sinai and survived. Two also were street vendors; the other was a customer, Aguilera said. One was age 25, one was 42 and the third was 47.<\/p>\n<p>Aguilera regularly would run into Padilla and his family throughout the neighborhood. He was a \u201cnice guy\u201d and a \u201cfamily man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt 2 p.m. [Wednesday], I was over there and I bought some fruit [from Padilla],\u201d Aguilera said. \u201cHe was just talking about how his baby is so big and he\u2019s walking now. I was like, \u2018He\u2019s your twin, he looks just like you, bro.\u2019 And he was like, \u2018Yeah, look at that little guy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, he was a family guy,\u201d Aguilera said. \u201cHe always had his kids by him and his wife by him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chicago police on Thursday released surveillance footage showing three people wanted in connection to the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>                            <a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"image-430000\" name=\"image-430000\" data-cms-ai=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Images released by Chicago police showing three people wanted in connection with a shooting that killed one man and wounded three women on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 in Little Village\"  width=\"840\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/708c463\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/842x406+0+0\/resize\/840x405!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fa1%2Fa5%2F61a38d72442796caa631148a989b%2Fscreenshot-2026-04-24-at-5-12-11-pm.png\" data-lazy-load=\"true\" bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSI0MDVweCIgd2lkdGg9Ijg0MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chicago police released these images that they say show three people who are wanted in connection to a shooting that killed one man and wounded three women Wednesday in Little Village.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago Police Department<\/p>\n<p>The videos show three people in a white sedan at a gas station shortly before the shooting. All three people are seen wearing face coverings with dark hoodies and dark pants. Police described them as weighing about 160 pounds to 180 pounds and between 5 feet, 10 inches and 6 feet tall.<\/p>\n<p>Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to an arrest in the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information is asked to contact Area 4 detectives at (312) 746-8252. Anonymous tips can be submitted at <a class=\"Link\" href=\"http:\/\/cpdtip.com\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cpdtip.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Little Village street vendor was working just a few feet away from his wife and baby Wednesday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-750952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116462385242836205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}