Chicago police still searching for Marine veteran's killer two years later

CHICAGO (FOX 32) - A decorated veteran was killed in a senseless act of violence exactly two years ago Monday.

The moment happened early in the morning on July 15, 2017. Marine veteran Robert Sharpe was walking to dialysis when someone tried to rob him.

"He tried to grab the bag off of Robert's shoulder, and Robert just did the quick brushoff, and the guy shot him one time, killing him," said Det. Marc Leavitt, Area North Chicago Police.

It happened in the 400 block of North Kedzie.

"The worst thing is, he's two blocks from his veterans home that he was living on, and he was only going another two blocks," said Det. Leavitt. "Here you have a guy just minding his own business, trying to get on with life, and now his life is over with."

Det. Leavitt has tirelessly worked the case for the last two years. 

"I've searched robbery patterns, anybody that fit that description that got caught in a crime anywhere," said Det. Leavitt. "We knocked on doors handing out flyers for about a mile radius in every direction."

"We did our due diligence and interviewed numerous gang members," said Det. Leavitt. "I had our social media unit try to keep an eye on the area and try to look for keywords or bragging. It's a little unusual when you interview numerous gang members or people that live in the area, and not one person heard about it."

Det. Leavitt says the gunman used a revolver, which only leaves behind a bullet and not a shell casing. That means ballistics testing using a government database is out of the question. 

However, something that may help the investigation is pictures of persons of interest, shown in the area less than two minutes after Sharpe was killed. 

"Maybe they heard something, maybe they were running because they heard the gunshot, we don't know," said Det. Leavitt. "All we know is we don't have a lot on it, and we have the video footage of them leaving the scene pretty quickly, a minute and a half to two minutes after the incident."

Friends, family and police are holding out hope for an arrest. "It's just a shame, someone lives to get that old and serve this country the way he did, the years he served in the Marine Corps," said Pete Anderson, a friend of Sharpe's.