Personal Life and Death
He and his wife Sherialyn had three children: Sabrina, Kelley and Ricky Jr.
On July 2, 1999, while jogging near his Skokie, Illinois home with his son and daughter, ages 8 and 10, he was murdered by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a member of the white supremacist Creativity Movement who went on a shooting spree. Smith was a disciple of Mathew Hale (leader of Creativity Movement) and his shooting spree took place two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law in Illinois. Over a span of a few days, Smith killed a Korean American student at Indiana University, injured two African American men in Springfield Illinois, a Taiwanese man in Urbana, an African American minister in Decatur, and six Orthodox Jews in West Rogers Park. Smith also attempted to shoot, but missed 9 other potential victims. According to eyewitnesses, Smith pulled alongside the unsuspecting Byrdsong and shot him multiple times. Smith was never brought to trial because he committed suicide on July 4, 1999 after he crashed his car into a metal post during a high-speed chase in Southern Illinois. .
Read more about this topic: Ricky Byrdsong
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