Family pleads for justice after man shot, killed in West Loop during brother's birthday celebration

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A family is searching for answers more than a month after their loved one was shot and killed downtown.

Chicago police said Princeton Miller got into an argument with two men last month in West Loop and one of the suspects shot him.

Miller was a DJ and model. His family is pleading for anyone with information to come forward. They spoke exclusively with ABC7 Chicago on Friday.

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The shooting happened while an area in West Loop was bustling with people. That's when Miller was out celebrating another year of life for his little brother, Robert Hunter, when his own life was taken after a sudden altercation ended in gunfire.

"My brother would always joke and say, 'You're not ready for the world, baby bro,'" Hunter said. "Never was I ready for a world without him."

Soon after a picture was taken of them, the unexpected loss followed.

"A night that was filled with joy just turned into tragedy," Hunter said.

Hunter's birthday celebration ended in bloodshed after his older brother, Miller, was gunned down right in front of their cousin as Hunter waited for them at a nearby bar. It happened in the early morning hours of September 21 near Halsted and Lake in the West Loop.

Miller's family says he was standing outside, waiting for an Uber ride, when he got into an argument with two men, he did not know, who were in a car. One of them then pulled out a gun.

"Had it been the person he had the altercation with it may have been different, but the driver was not in danger of Princeton," his grandmother Odessa Johnson said. "He's the one that pulled the trigger. He endangered his passenger as well as shooting Princeton."

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"You didn't have to do that," his sister Paris'sa Boston said. "He was not an imminent threat to you, or anybody. And, you had no regard for life at that point."

Police say the two drove off while the 38-year-old was shot in his chest and later died at the hospital.

The victim leaves behind his 3-year-old daughter and two stepdaughters, wife, younger siblings, and parents, just as his passions for modeling and DJing were flourishing. His family home is now left hollow.

"At night time, she cries for her daddy. 'I want my daddy. Why my daddy is not here? Why is he with God?,'" his widow Irma Miller said.

A spokesperson for CPD confirmed to ABC7 Friday that two men were taken in for questioning but were later released without charges as the investigation continues.

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