New details emerge in Navy Pier shooting that killed two men

A man charged in the fatal shooting of two men at Navy Pier was ordered held while pending trial Saturday.

Raylon East, a 36-year-old South Shore resident, faces two counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony unlawful use of a weapon, police said. Judge David L. Kelly said the shooting was a “cold, calculated and premeditated execution.”

“You pose a real, and very present danger to not only your former coworkers, but the community at large,” Kelly told East.

Video captured East riding a CTA bus from his home to Navy Pier, walking into the loading dock area and then into an office where he encountered his former coworkers at Levy Restaurants, Lamont Johnson, 51, of suburban Lansing, and Peter Jennings, 47, of the North Park neighborhood, prosecutors said. He shot Johnson once in the head before shooting Jennings once in the head. Both men were found by another employee about 12 minutes later, prosecutors said.

Immediately after the shooting, East moved to the side of the pier near some tourism boats where he removed a layer of clothes and threw them into the lake along with the 9mm handgun that he allegedly used to shoot Jennings and Johnson, prosecutors said.

CPD divers recovered the gun on Thursday. East then got on a bus to East 71st Street and South Exchange Avenue, where he threw another layer of clothes in a dumpster before buying a pair of slides and a new head covering from a nearby store.

He then stopped at a grocery store before going home, prosecutors said. Two days later, he turned himself in to police and identified himself in video and pictures from along his route to and from Navy Pier. Witnesses also identified him in the videos and photos.

East was previously sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of aggravated robbery, and disciplinary records from his two years at Levy showed “multiple acts of aggressive behavior,” with a history of verbal and physical altercations with coworkers, prosecutors said.

East is due in court again Tuesday.

Contributing: Tom Schuba

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