CHICAGO (AP) — A man accused of killing three men and seriously injuring another by intentionally plowing his car into them outside a well-known gay bar in Chicago has been arrested on murder charges, police announced Tuesday.
At a news conference, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said 34-year-old Tavis Dunbar was arrested on Monday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder after an investigation revealed that he “intentionally struck” the men.
According to Brendan Deenihan, the department’s chief of detectives, Dunbar, accompanied by an attorney, surrendered to police. But, he said, police do not know a motive for the attack outside of Jeffery Pub at about 5 a.m. on Aug. 14 because Dunbar “invoked his right to remain silent.”
Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Dunbar jailed without bond during a Tuesday hearing.
Since the incident, there have been questions about whether the men who were killed outside one of the city’s oldest gay bars were the victims of a hate crime. But Deenihan said, “We do not have any evidence to support that this was a hate crime at this time.”
He also said detectives determined that Dunbar was in the bar before the incident, but that there was no evidence that he got into a fight or an argument with anyone there before he left. In a court filing, prosecutors say Deenihan got into a car, drove off at nearly 60 mph and “never once touched the brake” before he slammed into four people, killing three of them.
Deenihan said police were able to identify Dunbar as a suspect through anonymous tips and by examining surveillance camera footage that allowed detectives to track him as he got out of the car a short distance from the incident and walk to an apartment building where he asked for help.
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