Neighbor says Chicago lifeguard charged with shooting 2 teens, killing 1, also shot 2 her dogs in 2023
Charles Leto, 55, was ordered held in First Appearance Court on Sunday on one count each of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
He is charged in the shooting this past Thursday evening that killed 15-year-old Marjay Dotson and seriously wounded 14-year-old Jeremy Herred this past Thursday in Douglass Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Jeremy is the cousin of Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed by police in 2014.
Marjay Dotson and Jeremy Herred
Supplied to CBS
Prosecutors said Leto opened fire on the teens following a quarrel with a third teenage boy identified as "Victim 3" after Leto found his bicycle had been moved. There was no evidence that the people who moved the bike were the teen victims in the case, nor that the teenage boys threatened Leto or were armed, prosecutors said.
Jacqui Korvas-Michels said when Leto was her neighbor two years ago, he shot both of her dogs — killing one and injuring the other — in her alley next to her garage in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.
Jacqui Korvas-Michels says Charles Leto shot her two dogs, killing one, in Lakeview in February 2023.
Jacqui Korvas-Michels
Korvas-Michels said she was taking out the trash when Leto walked out of his apartment, saw her two dogs, walked back inside, grabbed a gun, and came out firing at the animals.
"Don't you think there is something wrong with someone who keeps shooting people, and dogs?" Korvas-Michels said. "God know what else he's gotten away with."
CBS News Chicago did a story on the case back in February 2023, and on how a SWAT team came to look for the shooter after he walked away.
"SWAT came, FBI," Korvas-Michels said. "We had helicopters."
CBS News Chicago reported at the time that the SWAT team was on the scene for five hours in the area of Seminary Avenue and George Street — first identifying the man now identified as Leto and then trying to make contact with him, and he was cooperative once they did so, police said. The standoff caused alarm and panic in the surrounding neighborhood, with some picturing an active shooter situation.
Ultimately, police said when they found the man now known to be Leto, he told officers he had shot the dogs in fear for his life, CBS News Chicago reported at the time. He was not charged or cited.
"He said he felt threatened," said Korvas-Michels.
Over the weekend, Korvas-Michels saw the police photo of Leto, now facing charges in the shooting in Douglass Park.
Korvas-Michels said when she saw Leto's mug shot, she saw "a crazy person."
Video now shows Leto this past Thursday evening, on what seemed like a quiet day after the pool had closed for the night. Kids could be seen playing basketball in the background when gunfire erupted.
Before the gunfire erupted, Marjay walked past the Leto along the sidewalk, while Victim 3, still on the grassy area, reached toward Leto's bike, prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's office said. At that point, Leto stood up and aimed a gun at Marjay, who was turning away from Leto at the time, prosecutors said.
Leto fired one shot at Marjay, striking him in the lower back, prosecutors said. Marjay fell to the ground.
Leto then turned to his left and fired at Jeremy and Victim 3, who were in the grassy area some distance away, prosecutors said. Victim 3 put his hands in the air and walked backward, while Jeremy walked backward as well, prosecutors said.
Jeremy was struck in the neck and fell to the ground.
Marjay later died of his wounds. Jeremy was hospitalized in critical condition with life-threatening injuries to his neck — with the bullet having shattered his vertebrae and severed an artery that brings blood to his brain, prosecutors said.
"He needs help getting off high things," said Korvas-Michels. "He needs assistance."
Korvas-Michels showed how her surviving dog, Oakie, can barely walk after suffering gunshot wounds in the 2023 incident involving Leto. He has gone through numerous surgeries.
"They had to reconstruct part of his paws, and close up the gunshot wounds, and teach him how to stand. The man should not be able to have a conceal and carry," Korvas-Michels said. "I feel sad. I'm at a loss. It's not going to bring it back, and I feel horrible for these families."
Korvas-Michels claimed that in the process of shooting her dogs, Leto also pointed the gun right at her.
CBS News Chicago has been looking into Leto's background. But there is no record on a background check of the case of the shooting of the two dogs, because Leto was not charged with or convicted of any crime.
CBS News Chicago was waiting late Monday to hear back from the Cook County State's Attorney's office with questions on that shooting.
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A ll appeared normal at the Wayfarer Foundation in the weeks prior to its announcement that it was shutting down. The team was actively recruiting a grant manager and summer interns. A new manager of growth and culture started in April. Employees were planning events with Wayfarer's nonprofit grantees. Even its billionaire founder, Steve Sarowitz, was talking about a bright future, emailing grantees on April 9: 'Though we're living in a time of profound change, the Foundation remains committed to our mission [...]. Our work is only beginning and we have much to do together.' Then, around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, April 28, Sarowitz awoke to a dwindling fire in a trash can in the driveway of his home in a Chicago suburb; he put it out with two water bottles, according to a fire department report. Later that day, his wife received a text from an unknown sender claiming to have helped set the fire. 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DAFs also allow the ultra wealthy to give in near secrecy. Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively captured in a scene from their movie "It Ends with Us," in which Baldoni plays an abusive husband. The movie came out in August 2024. Four months later Lively sued Baldoni, Sarowitz and Wayfarer Studios. Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/There's ample reason for Sarowitz to want privacy at the moment. In December, Blake Lively sued him, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios. She accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her on the set of their movie It Ends with Us , which he directed, they co-starred in and the studio produced. She alleged that Baldoni then illegally retaliated with a media smear campaign—funded by Sarowitz—when she spoke out about his behavior. He, Sarowitz and the studio have denied the allegations. They countersued Lively for defamation and extortion, claims that a judge dismissed on June 9. The Wayfarer Foundation was widely reported to be Baldoni's organization when the news of its closure broke. According to Forbes reporting, though, it was Sarowitz's entity: He provided the funding, while Baldoni advised on its activities as a board member. Sarowitz contributed some $160 million to the foundation, which doled out nearly $60 million to over 200 nonprofits from its 2021 founding through 2024. (He's contributed another $90 million to a separate charitable family foundation with a separate mission that his wife runs.) Inspired by Sarowitz's Baháʼí faith, the name Wayfarer was meant to evoke traveling the path toward a more unified world. The foundation—which aimed to promote social justice and empower minorities—tried to avoid being associated with the studio's legal drama, which has captured the public's attention like few other Hollywood spectacles in recent years. For instance, it armed staff with language to help differentiate between the two entities. 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While experts say the hefty legal, security and PR expenses could already total $40 million, Sarowitz still has an estimated $2.3 billion fortune, which stems from founding payroll firm Paylocity (market cap: $10.2 billion) decades ago and running it as CEO until 2011. While $1.6 billion of that is tied up in Paylocity shares, Forbes estimates he has another $700 million in cash and other investments—more than enough for him to have funded the foundation's 2025 budget of $40 million for several decades. When asked why he shut down so quickly or if there were specific events that led to his decision, Sarowitz declined to comment on the Lively lawsuit or the personal threats and instead simply said that now was 'as good a time as any.' The day after Wayfarer announced its shutdown, police arrested a suspect in the arson and blackmail incidents: Eduardo Aragon, 26; he has been charged with 13 criminal counts of arson, intimidation and harassment. Illinois does not allow bail at all, and Aragon must remain in custody until the case is resolved, a judge ruled. The next court date is scheduled for July 8. Nevertheless, Sarowitz has remained on high alert. He stationed 24/7 security guards outside his homes as well as the foundation headquarters, according to a source familiar with the deployment. Foundation staff signed NDAs as part of their severance agreements, so none would speak to Forbes on the record. But two former workers who asked not to be identified said that safety concerns were discussed at Wayfarer even before the arson. Several defendants named in Lively's case have said they received death threats in recent months. Safety concerns at many nonprofits have increased since President Trump's inauguration, says Elisha Smith Arrillaga, research VP at the Center for Effective Philanthropy. That's been especially true if their work lies in a controversial area: 'Anything can become a lightning rod.' S arowitz, who is 59, still plans to give away all his money well before he dies. His interest in social justice began early, inspired in part by getting bullied and beaten up for being Jewish while growing up in Homewood, Illinois. In 1997, he founded Paylocity, which took off after he launched one of the first cloud-based payroll systems in 2004. By the time it went public in 2014, Sarowitz had stepped away from day-to-day involvement, though he stayed on as chairman until August and still sits on the board. That IPO turbocharged Sarowitz's wealth and inspired his pivot to philanthropy. Meanwhile, friends teased him for continuing to fly coach, drive a Prius and dress simply. 'I'm not interested in luxury,' he told Forbes last year. Around the time of the IPO, after studying the Bahá'í faith for a few years at the recommendation of a friend, Sarowitz says he had an epiphany, followed by a four-day spiritual transformation while visiting the prophet Bahá'u'lláh's shrine in Israel. His wife promptly sent him to two psychologists. He appeared to be in something like a manic state, constantly elated and sleeping little. Sarowitz formally converted in 2015. 'Baháʼí made the most sense to me. I have a very logical mind,' he told Forbes last year. Baháʼís believe that all faiths are manifestations of the same fundamental religion—and it would be illogical to think that the billions of people who follow Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all mistaken, he argued. Around 2018, Sarowitz met Baldoni, from whom he sought advice for a documentary he was producing on the origins of Baháʼí. Baldoni, who also follows the faith, was already running a small company called Wayfarer Entertainment and a small nonprofit called The Wayfarer Foundation that put on an annual Skid Row Carnival of Love for unhoused residents of L.A. Sarowitz joined the foundation board and worked with Baldoni to transform the film company into a new entity that he would finance, Wayfarer Studios. Since 2020, the studio has helped produce a diverse array of films it deems to have positive messages, like Garfield and Will & Harper . It Ends with Us depicted overcoming spousal abuse. Sarowitz has also created Wayfarer Theater, a cinema outside Chicago that only plays movies that 'uplift the spirit.' For him, that means no gratuitous sex, violence or drug use, and no objectification of women. Movies like The Life of Chuck , Jurassic World Rebirth and Everything's Going to Be Great are currently playing. In 2021, when Baldoni changed his foundation's name to Sarowitz started his own Wayfarer Foundation, which he funded entirely himself. Baldoni, who was a 'key advisor' to Sarowitz's entity, will continue to advise him on new philanthropic efforts, says Sarowitz. The foundation, which was supposed to disburse nearly $40 million this year (up from about $20 million), funded nonprofits that identified as having a spiritual purpose. 'If you only apply material solutions, which we tend to do—we see a person who's starving and give them food; we see a person who's homeless and give them a home—we haven't actually solved the core problem,' he argued. 'And it becomes, in the long run, a band-aid solution.' Wayfarer estimated it was the first significant donor for 15% of grantees. Grantees' annual budgets were usually around $1 million and always less than $5 million, meaning they often relied heavily on Wayfarer, which bequeathed more and smaller awards than was typical for a private foundation of its size. Its 152 recipients in 2023 received an average of $127,804. 'It goes back to the entrepreneurial spirit that Steve has,' the foundation's former executive director, Laura Herrick, told Forbes last year. 'He has seen so often what can happen when somebody invests in a project early on, and the impact that it can make.' Most of Wayfarer's donations were unrestricted—a rarity among private foundations, which often prefer to fund programs rather than salaries or other crucial operational expenses. Grantees gushed to Forbes about the ultra-supportive attitude of the foundation's staff (who regularly sent them care packages and showed up to their events), and Sarowitz himself. They praised the fact that Wayfarer gave not only donations but mentorship, including trainings in everything from communications to fundraising. Wayfarer shut down for good on June 30. By then, nearly all remaining grants had been paid, according to Sarowitz, though a few final sums are going out in the next couple of days. He says he will keep funding many grantees in private, though it's unclear which ones, and to what extent future donations will be commensurate with the old. He also says he is not accepting any new grant solicitations at this time. 'At times, my biggest frustration is feeling like I'm an ATM and not a human being,' he told Forbes last year. Many of those previously funded by Wayfarer who hadn't submitted their renewal applications before the buzzer are scrambling. 'We'd just started the conversation with them to fund us again,' says Takisha Miller, executive director of Chocolate Milk Café, which organizes lactation support for African diaspora families. But she hadn't yet applied. 'So we're not promised anything. Which is why it's unfortunate—like, 'Aw man, one more month…'' Organic Oneness founder Syda Segovia Taylor's renewal application was denied, but Sarowitz has assured her that he will continue to fund her in some way privately. She remembers learning of Wayfarer's closure during a break at her annual board gathering. 'I was like, 'Okay, you guys, our safety net is not as thick or as wide as we thought,'' she says. But like all grantees with whom Forbes spoke, her primary emphasis was gratitude for Wayfarer's support until now. 'I feel like they've prepared me for this moment,' she says, citing guidance she'd received on fundraising and strategizing. 'Now I've just got to stand on my own two feet.' No matter how Sarowitz proceeds as a philanthropist, his decision to step back and go dark has had an impact. 'I looked to them as an example of what a foundation could be,' says Mary Carl, executive director of Miracle Messages, a group helping people experiencing homelessness. 'For that to be taken away from some of the nonprofits that are very small is devastating for their sustainability.' 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