Car theft in Hyde Park: 2 people in custody after 73-year-old man died after being beaten near University of Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) – Two people are in police custody after a 73-year-old Vietnamese veteran was killed in a car theft attempt on Wednesday in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

After the attempted hijacking and the beating of Keith Cooper, witnesses who helped repel two assailants also helped police locate them.

“I just don’t get it,” said Curtis Carlton, Cooper’s son-in-law. “In broad daylight, he comes here all the time. We all do our shopping here. They tried to steal his car. They didn’t even get his car back and they took his life.”

A source told ABC7 that the two people taken to the South Zone Police Headquarters are an adult and a minor.

Around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Cooper was outside his usual grocery store in the 5300 block of West Kimbark in Hyde Park when police said he was approached by two strangers.

They demanded his car and then hit him on the head several times. His daughter said the beating caused a heart attack which killed him.

“We were planning a trip soon in about a week,” Cooper’s daughter Keinika Carlton said. “He had specific instructions for his final arrangements, so I just have to implement them. “

Her family are trying to make sense of something so tragic and insane.

“My dad, he was a sci-fi lover, a jazz lover, loved his grandchildren, loved his family, just a fun person to be around,” said Keinika Carlton.

“He was like a bonus dad. He was my step dad, but he was like a dad,” Curtis Carlton said. “He was the best. Keith was the best.”

He survived two combat missions in Vietnam only to be beaten to death outside his usual grocery store a few days before his birthday.