The Chicago family battles a “pro-squatter” who has taken over dead mother’s home and left a bullet hole in the window
A Chicago woman said a squatter with a long criminal history took over her dead mother’s home and has refused to leave since September.
darthula young said CBS Chicago This week that she received a call from neighbors in September that there had been a shooting at the home in the Chatham neighborhood that her mother left to the family after her death.
When Young got to the house, the locks had been replaced and there was a bullet hole in the front window, she told the outlet.
“The person who was shot in the apartment — this guy called Takito Murray — came back from the hospital and informed us and the police that he was living there now, that he had rights — he was a professional squatter,” Young said .
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Young said the Chicago police told her she had to go through the court system and she has been trying to do so since September without success.
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“It was a nightmare,” Young said.
CBS Chicago reported that Murray has been arrested at least six times since 2017 on drug and gun charges, and the outlet was able to confront Murray outside the home.
“I’m in the process of finding a place to stay,” Murray told the outlet. “You can’t just move like that.”
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Murray claims he plans to leave sometime in April or May, but Young said he routinely claims to leave soon and then stops.
“Every time I was there, he would tell me he was leaving in two weeks,” Young said. “He’s leaving in two weeks. He just can’t find a place.”
“So you acknowledge that it was her mother’s building — that it belonged to her mother?” asked reporter Charlie De Mar Murray.
“Yes, I think I acknowledge — her mother and siblings, that was her building,” Murray replied. He said he rented the property from one of Young’s siblings, but couldn’t provide proof.
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Young said the city hasn’t shut off the water because technically someone lives there, and she’s on the hook over a $1,300 bill.
Michael Zink, a landlord-tenant attorney not involved in the case, told the outlet that evicting squatters in Chicago through the legal system can take six to eight months.
“The problem that the police have is when they show up to a scene like this they don’t know who is telling the truth,” Zink said.
Zink said squats are on the rise in Chicago and This is reported by Fox News Digital Earlier this month, in the very same Chatham neighborhood, squatters had taken over the home of another woman’s late mother, claiming to be living there legally.
