Diante Speed Charged In Death Of Northwestern PhD Student Shane Colombo

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Charges have been issued in the death of a 25-year-old Northwestern doctoral student, who was fatally shot just hours after moving to Chicago in September.

Diante Speed, 20, of Chicago, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Shane Colombo.

Speed was arrested Tuesday after police say he was identified as the person who fired a handgun multiple times in the 7500 block of North Clark Street on Sept. 2.

Colombo had been living in Chicago for only six hours after moving from California, when he left his house to run an errand and was caught in crossfire between two other men. Police said he was not the intended target of the shooting.

Colombo was shot in the chest, lower back and wrist and was pronounced dead at Presence Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston.

He came to Northwestern from Riverside, California, with impressive credentials in the study of psychology.

His mother, Tonya Colombo, described him as a "beautiful and bright light."

In January his mother announced that an anonymous donor increased reward money from $10,000 to $12,000 for a tip leading to an arrest in the death of her son.

"Whatever we have to do to get the individuals who are responsible for taking my son's life caught, we are planning to do," she said.

Police surveillance photos released last fall show three men wanted in connection with the shooting. Police said three men were seen running through the parking lot of a Bank of America less than a block from the scene of the shooting just after Colombo was gunned down.

Speed was expected in bond court in Chicago Wednesday.

Speed has a lengthy criminal history. He was jailed five times in 2017. In 2018, he faced multiple charges including Aggravated Battery to an officer and possession of a firearm. A month after he allegedly shot and killed Colombo, he was in prison until May of 2019.