Police Link Gun Found to Hudson Killings

Weapon was in weeds a block from where nephew's body was found.

ByABC News
October 26, 2008, 10:34 AM

Nov. 1, 2008 — -- Chicago police have linked a gun found last week in a vacant lot to the killings of Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.

Police found the .45 caliber gun in a vacant lot about a block from where the body of Hudson's nephew, Julian King, was discovered Monday morning, ABC News Chicago affiliate WLS-TV reported.

Forensic testing on the gun showed it to be the same weapon used to kill all three people, police said.

Police have not named a suspect in the killings, but Chicago Police Department Superintendent Jody Weis said that identifying the weapon used in the crimes was a positive step.

"We've still got a lot more to do," said Supt. Jody Weis, Chicago Police Department. "There's still a lot more forensic examination to do. Right now, we're extraordinarily pleased and satisfied that the weapon has been identified as the weapon that has been used in the homicides. And there's still more work to do which we are doing at this time."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced the gun to the original owner in Michigan, who had reported it stolen, WLS-TV reported.

"Recovering the weapon was a good sign. It gives us some additional clues. We're going to keep running them down. Like I mentioned before, I am extremely confident that this case will be solved," Weis said Thursday, the day after a police trainee found the gun.

Though he has not officially been called a suspect, William Balfour, the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's sister, is a person of interest in the case, police said.

Balfour, 27, has reportedly refused to take a polygraph test and has stopped cooperating with investigators. He is being held on a parole violation.

Julian King's body was found Monday in the back seat of a white Chevrolet Suburban that police had been looking for since Oct. 24, when he went missing and Hudson's mother and brother were found shot to death in their home on Chicago's South Side.

The vehicle was found about 10 miles southeast of the Hudson family home, and police said that the boy had been shot multiple times.