2018 Fairview Slaying Leads To Murder Charges

JOLIET, IL — Next month marks the two-year anniversary since 24-year-old Joliet resident Eric Ervins was gunned down at Joliet's now demolished Fairview Public Housing projects. No arrests had been made in the case — until this week. The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow has filed three counts of first-degree murder charges against Malik Bridges and two felony weapons charges against him.

Bail was set at $2.6 million for the Joliet murder defendant, jail records indicate.

Bridges has been incarcerated in the Will County Jail since Feb. 20 on unrelated charges of being a felon in possession of a weapon, resisting the arrest and an Illinois Department of Corrections parole violation.

In August 2018, Joliet Patch reported that Ervins, who was a gang member with a long criminal rap sheet, had just got out of the Will County Jail in late June after being arrested by Joliet Police officers on numerous charges that January.

That summer night at Fairview, Ervins died of multiple gunshots in the 800 block of Cardinal Lane. His death was treated as a homicide by the Joliet Police Department.

Bridges, who is now 24, resides in the 500 block of North Eastern Avenue, jail logs show.