Former middle school classmate charged in Bensenville teen’s murder

A former middle school classmate is accused of shooting an 18-year-old Bensenville man to death in Stone Park Sunday night.

Anthony Resendiz-Sanchez, 18, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Daniel Mendez, according to court records released Wednesday as part of his initial court appearance.

Authorities said the shooting was precipitated by a fight over a drug deal hours earlier.

Police said Mendez and others had arranged to meet Resendiz-Sanchez Sunday evening to buy marijuana. The two had several friends in common, prosecutors said, and had known each other since middle school.

Resendiz-Sanchez sent a friend to handle the transaction just after 7:30 p.m., according to court papers. During the transaction, the seller accused Mendez of stealing a “nug” of marijuana and a fight ensued. The fight was captured on surveillance video from a nearby camera.

After the fight, the seller called Resendiz-Sanchez and told him he’d been robbed. Resendiz-Sanchez then called Mendez about the robbery, which Mendez denied, authorities said.

Resendiz-Sanchez and four others then began looking for Mendez using location data Mendez was sharing via a social media app, eventually tracking him to Stone Park where they caught up to him in his vehicle near the intersection of 32nd and North avenues just before 9:30 p.m., according to authorities.

Police said Resendiz-Sanchez used his vehicle to smash into the rear of a vehicle driven by one of Mendez’s friends while it was stopped at a red light. Both the friend and Mendez drove into a nearby parking lot where Resendiz-Sanchez is accused of striking Mendez’s friend’s vehicle two more times, rendering both vehicles inoperable.

According to prosecutors, Mendez got out of his vehicle and was confronted by Resendiz-Sanchez.

During a physical altercation between the two, police said Resendiz-Sanchez shot Mendez twice in the chest. Mendez died shortly after being shot.

Resendiz-Sanchez and his friends fled the scene, leaving behind his car and two spent shell casings, authorities said.

Later that night, prosecutors said one of Resendiz-Sanchez’s friends who had witnessed the murder went to Maywood police to report the shooting.

At 1:30 a.m. Monday, Resendiz-Sanchez turned himself into police in Melrose Park where he “made admissions” and took investigators to a location in Chicago where a firearm was recovered. The weapon is being tested at the Illinois State Police crime lab, but “a preliminary verbal report indicated there was a high confidence correlation that the recovered fired cartridge casings were fired from the recovered firearm,” prosecutors said Wednesday in court.

Resendiz-Sanchez is being held at the Cook County jail while he awaits trial.