HARVEY, Ill. — When her 17-year-old son was murdered, Leslie Bell didn’t wait for police to investigate. She decided she would find his killer on her own.
Bell’s son, Isaiah Davis was found in an alley by Harvey police on Oct. 28. He had been shot and set on fire.
As police were investigating her son’s murder, so was Bell. She spoke to neighbors and found out who her son was last seen with. This led her to Faheem Norwood – the man who is now accused of killing her son. She tracked Norwood down and briefly met with him.
“I knew that it was him who hurt my son, who actually killed my son,” Bell said at a news conference Friday morning. “It was his interaction with me. He couldn’t give me eye contact, so that was it for me.”
Bell listened to her gut feeling and took what she knew to Harvey police. The detectives focused their investigation on Norwood and on Dec. 31 he was arrested. A day after he was arrested he was charged with first-degree murder. He is now being held without bail, according to the Cook County clerk of the circuit court records.
On Friday, police acknowledged and thanked Bell, her family and the community for helping them with the investigation that led to Norwood’s arrest.
“I thank the family of Isaiah Davis, his mother and her sisters for working with us to help bring this dangerous man to justice,” Harvey Police Deputy Chief Cameron Biddings said. “The arrest of Faheem Norwood was possible because the community worked with us.”
According to prosecutors, Norwood and Davis were in a home in Burnham when the shooting occured. Norwood pointed a gun at Davis and asked, “Would you take one for your boys” before pulling the trigger. No shot was fired. Norwood pointed the gun at the teen a second time and pulled the trigger again. This time it went off and Davis was shot, prosecutors said.
Norwood tried to cover up the murder by taking Davis’ body to an alley and setting him on fire, prosecutors said.
The defense attorney representing Norwood said her client didn’t intend to shoot Davis and that they were part of a group playing a game of “Russian roulette.”
At the time of the shooting, Norwood was on parole for a charge connected to a robbery and multiple murders in 2010. He was found not guilty for the murder of three people, including a 10-year-old, and the attempted murder of a 4-year-old. However, he went to prison on other related charges.
Bell said Norwood should have never been allowed to walk out of prison, given his criminal history. “He should have never been able to walk the streets ever, after all of that,” Bell said. “My son would still be alive.”
She said she feels lost without her son.
“Every time I turn and something is broke, I think, oh I can’t call Isaiah, what am I gonna do,” Bell said. “Everything was Isaiah. He was my baby, he was the last child.”
Norwood’s next court date is scheduled for Jan. 14.
