A singer who appeared on “The Voice” was shot and killed right after his birthday party, according to reports.
Alejandro “Jano” Fuentes, 45, appeared on a Mexican version of the popular TV talent show. He was shot and killed on Thursday, June 16, in an apparent ambush after he left his party at his performance arts school and studio in Chicago, NBC Chicago reported.
He was pronounced dead at 2:07 p.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said on Saturday.
He was in a vehicle with a passenger when a man came up to him with a gun and ordered him out of the car. Fuentes resisted and the gunman shot him several times in the head, critically wounding him.
The singer was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment. The gunmen fled on foot before he got into a car nearby, NBC Chicago said.
“We are feeling confused and we have no explanation why all these things are happening,” said his friend, Miguel Sanchez. “We are very sad because it’s something you don’t expect to happen to your close friends.”
Fuentes appeared on “La Voz,” the Mexican version of “The Voice,” in 2011, making the top-10.
Police said they haven’t found a suspect in the murder, but his friends think that he was targeted.
“It wasn’t random,” Miguel Sanchez told NBC. “This guy, they were waiting for him. They were waiting for him to come out of the school.”
A GoFundMe page was started in the singer’s honor, raising more than $3,800 as of June 19. “We ask for your help and at the same time send a prayer” for his recovery, the GoFundMe page says.
Fuentes had moved to Chicago three years ago to partake in a play, and he ended up staying in the city, setting up a studio.
“He loved to help everyone, it didn’t matter who it was,” said Alejandra Arellano, who knew him and works at a bakery by his studio. “We’re sad. We’re concerned and also because of the violence.”
Chicago is currently in the midst of an epidemic of gun violence. In 2016, out of 306 homicides, 275 people were shot to death---with 44 people gunned down across the city in June. Another 1,513 people have been shot and wounded this year alone.
Last year, 507 were murdered in Chicago, of which 445 were shot and killed. Nearly 3,000 people were shot in 2015.
The Chicago Tribune reported that 34 people were wounded and seven were killed in gun violence in the time between Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
