Suspect ambushed victims of road-rage shooting that killed 3-year-old in 2022, prosecutors say

The suspect in a 2022 road-rage shooting that killed a 3-year-old boy ambushed his victims as the boy's mother circled the block because she knew she was being followed, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.

Police have said the killing of 3-year-old Mateo Zastro on Sept. 22, 2022, stemmed from road rage.

Prosecutors on Friday did not use the term. Instead, they explained how the victims and defendant allegedly first encountered each other while merging in a construction zone that evening.

The defendant, Govanni Hernandez, and his wife were returning from a gun store in Oak Forest. The gun they bought was not the murder weapon, prosecutors said.

While returning in separate cars, Hernandez and his wife both merged in a construction zone and encountered Veronica Zastro driving her four children home, including Mateo.

Prosecutors did not explain what kind of interaction they had near Cicero Avenue and Marquette Road. But Zastro soon found herself being followed by Hernandez, who was driving a red Dodge Charger, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that, at one point, Hernandez and his wife both pulled over and Hernandez pulled something made of fabric from his wife's car's trunk, prosecutors said. Hernandez then drove off.

Meanwhile, Zastro was circling her block, worried she was being followed. Hernandez pulled into an alley and waited for Zastro to pass again, prosecutors said.

When the car approached, Hernandez "peeled out of the alley" dressed in a black face mask and opened fire on the car, striking Mateo in the back of his head, prosecutors said. Hernandez then allegedly got into his wife's car, abandoning his car near the scene.

In court, prosecutors laid out a whole list of evidence — including DNA and fingerprint matches, video surveillance and positive identification — against Hernandez. Surveillance video allegedly captures the shooting, which shows someone in a distinctive Chicago Bulls jersey and cap. Surveillance video at the gun shop earlier that evening shows Hernandez in the same jersey and hat, prosecutors said.

But despite the mountain of evidence and positive DNA match confirmed in August 2023, it wasn't until Tuesday that police arrested Hernandez at his home in Berwyn.

Hernandez appeared in a Cook County courtroom on Friday, dressed in a light hooded sweatshirt and red sweatpants. Judge Deidre Dyer ordered him held in pretrial detention on a charge of first-degree murder. His next court date is Aug. 6.