A Chicago woman said a squatter with a long criminal history has taken over her dead mother’s home and has refused to leave since September.
Darthula Young told CBS Chicago this week that she received a call from neighbors in September that there had been a shooting inside the Chatham neighborhood home that her mother had left to the family after she died.
When Young arrived at the home, the locks had been changed and there was a bullet hole in the front window, she told the outlet.
"The person who had been shot in the apartment – this guy named Takito Murray - came back from the hospital, and informed us and the police that he now lived there, that he had rights – he was professional squatter," Young said.
"It's been a nightmare," Young said.
CBS Chicago reported that Murray has been arrested for drug and weapons charges at least six times since 2017 and the outlet was able to confront Murray outside the home.
"I'm in the process of finding somewhere to stay," Murray told the outlet.
"Every time I've been there, he tells me he's leaving in two weeks," Young said.
"So you acknowledge that it was her mom's building – that her mom owned it?"
"Yes, I guess I acknowledge – her mom and her siblings, that was their building," Murray responded.
He said he is renting the property from one of Young’s siblings but could not provide proof.
Michael Zink, a landlord-tenant attorney who is not involved with the case, told the outlet that evictions of squatters in Chicago can take six to eight months via the legal system.