More than two years ago, Jacqui Korvas Michels kissed her dead dog Barry goodbye and turned to nurse her other dog through five surgeries.
She says a man shot the two black dogs — without any consequences — behind her home in Lake View in February 2023 when they barked at a cat in the alley.
Korvas Michels did not see the shooter’s face again until a neighbor told her he was in the news over the weekend, accused in the fatal shooting of a teenage boy and the wounding of another in Douglass Park on the West Side.
Authorities have charged Chicago Park District lifeguard Charles Leto, 55, with the murder of 15-year-old Marjay Johnson. He also faces an attempted murder charge for critically wounding 14-year-old Jeremy Herred.
On Sunday, a Cook County judge ordered Leto held until trial, describing him as “a terrifying threat to the community” who had “overreacted” when he started firing his gun at the boys outside the Douglass Park pool Thursday evening.
Leto’s lawyers have said he acted in self-defense after being threatened, and they described him as a man who “does not have a history of recklessly discharging weapons.”
But on Monday, Korvas Michels alleged that Leto claimed self-defense when he killed Barry and shot her other dog, Oakie — named after her husband’s home state — maiming Oakie permanently.
Korvas Michels said Leto’s defense in the Douglass Park echoes what he claimed after shooting her dogs on the North Side.
“I wasn’t shocked,” she told the Sun-Times about the murder charge. “It’s sad it took this to maybe, hopefully, finally do something about him.”
“Why [is he] still on the street? Where did we fail? Why didn’t this stop? Could we have kept this from happening again? Yeah, you think? Nobody stepped up,” she said.
The alley in the 1000 block of West Oakdale where Jacqui Korvas Michels says Charles Leto shot both of her dogs, killing one, in February 2023. Korvas Michels says two teens allegedly shot by Leto in Douglass Park would be alive and well had he been charged in the earlier incident.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Korvas Michels said that if Leto had been locked up for shooting her dogs, Marjay “would still be alive” and Jeremy “would not be fighting for his life.”
Chicago police SWAT teams came to the scene after the pets’ shooting in February 2023, but police said at the time that the shooter had a valid concealed carry license and that the dogs were off-leash and moved aggressively toward him. Leto was not charged in that incident.
Korvas Michels had a different version, saying Leto fired without warning and even pointed his gun at her after first shooting Barry and Oakie. She said Barry was “shot twice through her heart” and Oakie was shot four times.
Oakie “had to learn to stand and learn to walk again,” she said, adding that he continues to limp, favoring his left leg.
A spokesman for Leto’s lawyer said she had no further information about the 2023 incident and noted Leto was not charged in that shooting.
In a statement to the Sun-Times, the lawyer, Jayne Ingles, said Leto “was a dedicated advocate for preserving Douglass Pool as an important community resource. We are committed to ensuring that his actions are understood in full context and that his rights are protected as this matter proceeds.”
Prosecutors have said Marjay, Jeremy and a 15-year-old boy were at the pool about 7 p.m. when Leto was leaving after a lifeguard shift. The third boy allegedly got into a brief argument with Leto, but it wasn’t violent or threatening, prosecutors said.
Leto stopped on the sidewalk to fix his bike chain before pulling out a pistol and shooting Marjay in the back, according to authorities. Leto then turned and shot Jeremy and fired at the third boy, who had his hands up and was walking backward away from Leto, prosecutors said.