Police believe that a 63-year-old River North man fatally shot his estranged wife before taking his own life on the evening of April 23. At around 6:45 p.m., officers responding to a call of shots fired at an apartment home in the 500 block of West Superior Street arrived to find Josephine Martinez bleeding from a gunshot wound on the floor outside the unit.

Frank Davila was also found in the doorway of the home, dead from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. Martinez, 68, showed vital signs and was rushed to Northwestern Hospital but was pronounced dead a few hours later. Police recovered a 9 mm caliber pistol from the apartment. A police report of incident stated that the divorced couple, who were still living together, had a history of domestic disturbances.

An unknown offender reportedly made off with $30,000 in clothes and furs from the Nicole Miller shop in the 1400 block of North Wells Street sometime during the evening of April 21. Police arrived there the next morning to find that the glass door to the shop had been broken, evidently by a hammer that was sitting on the floor near the entrance. A manager at the shop reported the clothing missing but stated that no money had been taken from the store’s register.

Police arrested Patrice “Snug” Cross, of the 600 block of West Division Street, after a warranted raid on her home on the evening of April 20 turned up a semi-automatic handgun that Cross said she was holding for someone else.

Upon entering the Chicago Housing Authority-owned unit where Cross lived, gang enforcement officers detained her and 33-year-old Jennifer Murphy, of the 800 block of North Hudson Street, who was found to be in possession of 3 grams of cannabis which she attempted to flush down the toilet during the search.

Cross, 26, told officers that she was keeping a gun for a member of the Gangster Disciples gang, who had told her to hold onto it under threat a few weeks earlier. Officers retrieved the weapon, which contained 11 rounds of live ammunition, from a dresser in the offender’s bedroom.

A man reporting a burglary at his home early the morning of April 20 in the 2000 block of North Fremont Street told police that the items taken from his home included a watch, several laptop computers and a case of beer. Officers concluded that the offender had entered the man’s home through the porch screen window.

An employee at the Beverly R. jewelry store, 172 E. Walton Place, reported that over $100,000 in merchandise had been stolen from the shop during a break-in that occurred during the early morning of April 25.

Police responding to a burglar alarm at the establishment arrived to find that the front glass door had been shattered, along with a display case, and that a mallet had been left on the floor. The employee told police that he had been suspicious of two men and a woman who were in the shop on April 16, relaying that the woman was looking at the ceiling as they perused the store. There were no cameras operating on the premise during the incident.