Gun tied to triple slaying

November 02, 2008|By David Heinzmann and Stacy St. Clair, TRIBUNE REPORTERS

Forensic testing determined that the chrome-and-black .45-caliber pistol recovered by Chicago police was the weapon used to kill Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew, a law-enforcement source said Friday.

The gun, discovered Wednesday a block from where 7-year-old Julian King's body was found, was being tested in the hope of finding evidence that would tie the killings to a suspect, police said.

Police also are investigating whether the weapon had once belonged to Hudson's slain brother, Jason. He allegedly owned an identical gun that he thought was stolen from the family's Englewood home a few months ago, according to law-enforcement sources and several neighbors.

The .45-caliber Sig Sauer semiautomatic pistol was recovered in the bushes of a vacant lot on the West Side, a block from where the nephew's body was found Monday in an SUV.

Police immediately suspected it was the gun used in the killings because the unfired bullets matched the make and model of shell casings found at the Hudson family home, where the two other victims were slain, sources said.

William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister Julia, remains in custody after being questioned in the case, but he has not been charged in the slayings.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had traced the recovered gun to its original owner in Michigan, who reported it stolen, sources said.

While police have investigated the slayings as possible domestic violence, they have not ruled out other motives.

Jason Hudson was shot in the leg several months ago in Gary but refused to seek medical attention, friends and family members said. The wound limited his mobility and forced him to use a cane to walk.

"He had a troubled path," said his second cousin Joe Buckner. "He was trying to get his life figured out."