Growing up in a gang-infested section of Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, Alejandro "Alex" Valadez felt the impact street violence left -- the bullet hole in his living room window, blood on the sidewalk and, deepest of all, the murder of his oldest brother by a gang leader out for revenge.
It was for those reasons that Valadez, just 3 when his oldest brother Rogelio was slain, had decided he wanted to become a Chicago police officer by the time he was in kindergarten, his sister Brenda Valadez, tearfully recounted Wednesday in court.
But his own life was cut short in 2009 -- just three months before his first child was born -- when Valadez, 27, was killed while investigating a report of shots fired in Englewood, a violent district he'd transferred to in hopes of making a difference.
On Wednesday, two reputed gang members were sentenced for the murder to the maximum prison terms possible -- 120 years for Kevin Walker, 25, and 105 years for Christopher Harris, 25.
In imposing the sentences, Judge Jorge Alonso called Valadez "one of the best of us."
A third defendant, Shawn Gaston, was sentenced in 2011 to 125 years in prison.
"We were so proud of the fact that we were serving the city in which we were born and raised," said Brenda Valadez, who become a Chicago police officer four years before her brother. "We wanted to make a difference."
Prosecutors said Valadez was killed while investigating a report of shots fired at Gaston and other alleged Gangster Disciples in the 6000 block of South Hermitage Avenue just after midnight on June 1, 2009.
Valadez, dressed in plainclothes, was questioning a man when Gaston, out for revenge for the earlier shooting, returned to the scene. Both he and Harris wielded guns, while Walker drove the car.
State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who personally prosecuted the case, sought maximum sentences for Walker and Harris, saying "the criminals running around the streets of Englewood need to know there's serious (consequences) for what you do."
Even though prosecutors alleged he was the shooter, Harris received a lesser sentence than Walker because the jury at his trial could not reach a verdict on whether he had personally fired the shots that killed Valadez, Alvarez said. Walker also was on probation for an armed robbery at the time of the officer's murder.
Brenda Valadez told reporters after the sentencing that her family was thankful that the two received the maximum sentences.
"It will never bring any closure," she said. "The loss will never be any less, but we're thankful that it's over."
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
