Family shocked by hit-and-run death of Des Plaines teen
When Chance Taylor heard someone got hit by a car Friday night a few streets from his Des Plaines home, he and a friend wandered over to take a closer look at the crash site.
Police had cordoned off the area on the 900 block of East Algonquin Road shortly after 6 p.m. where a 17-year-old boy had been killed in a hit-and-run in the westbound lane.
Taylor tried to get close but police told him to stay on the sidewalk. Something in the back of his mind prompted him to ask if the victim was wearing a bluish-green jacket.
“I asked, ‘Did he look like me?'” said Taylor, fearing it was his twin brother, Choice, with whom he had just spoken on the phone about 6 p.m.
“I didn't know it was him,” a distraught Chance Taylor said Saturday, trying to hold back tears. “They just said we're going to have to take you home to tell your mama. They told me he was dead.”
Choice Taylor, a Maine West High School senior, was walking home on Prairie Avenue after working a shift at the Jewel-Osco grocery store off Lee Street south of Algonquin Road where he was a service clerk, Chance said.
Choice Taylor was crossing the street when he was hit around 6:20 p.m., approximately 50 feet east of Third Avenue in the westbound lane of Algonquin Road. A passing motorist called 9-1-1 and stood guard over Choice's body until police arrived, police said.
Police identified Choice from the Jewel paycheck in his pocket, his mother, Loreene Taylor, said.
When police finally arrived at their home at 10:30 p.m., Chance couldn't talk. He was overcome with grief and just stood near the doorway holding onto the wall, Loreene Taylor said.
“I'm looking out the door for (Choice) ... and they said he didn't make it,” she said. “That was when I just fell apart. Sometimes I'm numb. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with emotion. But I pray that somebody finds something, says something.”
The Taylor family and police are asking anyone with information that may lead to identifying the driver whose vehicle struck Choice, then left the scene of the accident, to step forward.
“My oldest son had been tragically taken away from us so prematurely,” Loreene Taylor said. “It seems as though someone had to have seen something. Whoever hit him must have been speeding.”
Loreene Taylor made an impassioned plea to Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan and the community.
“Let us please exhaust every resource, every avenue to help my family, and bring some justice and some closure to my son, a wonderful human being,” she said.
Police have questioned residents up and down the block along Algonquin Road where the accident occurred.
“We're still pursuing some phone calls that have come in the aftermath with some potential leads,” Des Plaines Police Chief Jim Prandini said Saturday afternoon. “We're going to be out and doing some more canvassing of the area. This is real difficult for us. We really are working our tails off to find something here. We really are dependent on the public to help us with this.”
Doris Alicea, who lives on the 900 block of Algonquin Road, came home Friday night to find police had blocked off the area in front of her home because that's where the accident happened.
“I can't even imagine ... it's just so sad,” Alicea said.
Alicea said the street lamp at the corner of Third Avenue and Algonquin Road had been out for a few days and she thought it may have made it harder to spot a pedestrian. She also said a police squad car was usually parked on Third Avenue to nab people who ran through the stop sign, but not during the night.
The Taylor family plans to put up fliers in the area urging anyone with information to call Des Plaines police directly at (847) 391-5400 or call crime stoppers, (847) 699-7867, or send an anonymous text message to “TXTaTIP” by first entering the keyword “ICARE” followed by a message of up to 160 characters.
“He was too good of a guy just to let this go,” said Choice's sister, Unique Goff, 21, who flew in from Austin, Texas, Saturday morning to be with the family. “We need to know something. We miss him.”
Goff said Choice enjoyed playing video games and cooking, and had a kind and generous spirit.
“He was a great artist and not too many people know that,” Goff said. “I got him to join the chess team because when I went to Maine West, I was on the chess team, so I taught him how to play and suggested he join it.”
Choice also was a member of the school's anime club, graphic arts club and a member of the bass fishing team. He was set to graduate in June and had plans to attend Oakton Community College in Des Plaines to earn a certificate as a computer technician.
Friends have launched a Facebook page called “R.I.P. Choice Taylor” that hundreds have joined and posted messages honoring the teenager, who could often be found playing basketball with Chance in a park near the family's home.
“Every time I would go to the library, he was there, on the computer,” said Kathie Ayala, a 2010 graduate of Maine West High School who knew Choice and posted on the Facebook page. “It's extremely sad to see someone with a bright future pass away.”
Maine Township High School District 207 spokesman David Beery said grief counselors and social workers will be available for students who need help coping when school resumes Monday.
“As a district and as a school, we are deeply saddened by (Choice's) tragic death,” Beery said. “We offer our most heartfelt condolences to all of his family and friends. I would join (Principal) Audrey Haugan, who has encouraged everybody in the Maine West family to reach out and be there for each other.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office scheduled an autopsy for Saturday afternoon. The accident remains under investigation.
Funeral services for Choice Taylor are pending.