The Dunning massacre
It was on Saturday night that we started hearing about five people being shot on the Far Northwest Side of Chicago. I always wonder how close that is to where I used to live, because while a description like that narrows it down somewhat, it still covers a fair amount of the city. A general address came in: The 6700 block of W. Irving Park Road. Oh, wow--that is my old neighborhood. Now I was concerned. Was this a drive-by? Were people shot randomly? This is a stretch of road my family covered countless times. Grandma lives just a few blocks away; my grandfather at one point lived on Irving just a couple blocks in the other direction. The mall is down the road; the freshmen campus of Taft High School just opened across the street. When video came rolling in, it pinpointed exactly where this was, just down the street from the gas station at Oak Park. Viewing the other direction, you could see the spire of St Pascal's in the distance. I'd known people who lived in one of those buildings. I don't know that I still do, since this is close to 30 years ago, but it's always possible.
The story has been trickling out for the past couple days.
Man Charged With Murder After Fatally Shooting 5 Neighbors, Chicago Police Say
Published Oct 14, 2019 at 8:15 AM | Updated at 10:05 AM CDT on Oct 14, 2019
A 66-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say he fatally shot five of his neighbors Saturday evening at an apartment complex on Chicago's Northwest Side, according to police.
Krysztof Marek, of the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road, was charged with five felony counts of first degree murder, Chicago police said in a statement Monday morning.
Authorities said Marek went into a neighbor’s apartment at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and fatally shot four people as they ate dinner.
"For reasons we yet know don’t know, he opened fire on all four of those individuals, killing them all," CPD First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio said.
Officials said Marek then went to the the building’s third floor, where he confronted another resident and shot her. Police said Monday that the victims were a 61-year-old male, a 65-year-old-female, a 30 to 35-year-old female, a 53-year-old female and a 40 to 45-year-old male.
All five were taken to area hospitals where they were pronounced dead, police said Monday.
The Cook County medical examiner's office identified two of the victims over the weekend: 53-year-old Jolanta Topolska, who died early Sunday, and Tsvetanka Kostadinova, of an unknown age, who was pronounced dead Saturday evening.
Further details, including the identities of the three other victims, were not immediately available.
"It definitely wasn’t random. He lives in the building, he’s lived there for 15 years. He knows all the victims, but he’s not talking," Riccio said.
Riccio said the man, later identified as Marek, was a retired construction worker whose neighbors described him as having “anger management issues.”
He had a history of complaints from other residents, including noise complaints and "exchanging dirty looks," officials said.
"We don’t know what set him off tonight," Riccio said. "Most of the occupants inside the building have had problems with him in the past, but certainly nothing of this magnitude."
Riccio said there was no forced entry to the apartments. A handgun was used in the shooting and police were looking into how it was obtained.
‘I was face to face’: Witness, prosecutor describes moments after Dunning massacre
Posted 8:21 AM, October 14, 2019, by Mike Lowe and Judy Wang, Updated at 04:45PM, October 14, 2019
CHICAGO - A man charged with killing five people at a Northwest Side condominium complex is being held without bond.
Krysztof Marek, 66, faces five felony counts of first degree murder. In bond court Friday, a Cook County judge described the weekend shooting rampage as "evil on steroids."
Marek, a retired truck driver who had lived in the building on the 6700 block of West Irving Park for 15 years, and was at one point the condo association president, is accused of attacking his neighbors as they sat down to eat at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
"All four bodies dropped to the floor around the table," Assistant State's Attorney James Murphy said. "Victim 1, victim 2, victim 3 and victim 4, all sat around a set dinner table, with food on the table untouched."
The retired truck driver then allegedly climbed the steps to the third floor, where he encountered a witness.
The witness locked his door and rushed his wife and child to safety.
"I was face to face with that man," a witness told us. "I saw him... he saw me, and I know he’s coming."
Marek then allegedly shot another witness in the abdomen as she tried to escape. Police believe he followed her and then executed the woman with a shot to the back of the head.
Police said the victims were a 61-year-old male, a 65 year-old-female, a 53 year-old-female, a 30-35 year-old-female, and a 40-45 year-old-male. They were transported to local hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.
Two of the victims were identified as 43-year-old Tsvetanka Kostadinova and 53-year-old Jolanta Topolska.
The identities of the other three victims have not yet been released.
Authorities said Marek left two cryptic notes written in Polish that were tapped to his apartment door.
One of the notes read: "No mercy. Remember whatever s--- they do to you, you control it yourself, not them. Enough. You have to pay for it."
There were some clues pointing to a motive. Marek was living alone and not paying for his mortgage or association fees, Murphy said.
Residents in the building tell WGN that police responded to the complex two months ago, over reports that Marek had hit the son of one of the women killed. In the last week, neighbors said they had very tense interactions with Marek.
Five white crosses and flowers now sit in front of the complex to remember the victims.
I happened to catch the live shot of Judy Wang in front of the building this morning at 6:30, and behind her, directly in front of the building in question, there was a car parked against the curb, and a second car parked on it. The second car was at about a 45-degree angle, having hit the parked car. Judy went about her report, then mentioned at the end that there had just been this car accident and police had yet to arrive upon the scene. That stretch of Irving was then shut down for part of the morning. Dad was convinced it was related to all the news crews there covering the shooting.
This is so bizarre in so many ways. It makes me think of my dad, too, and how upset he gets with our neighbors. He does not own a handgun, thankfully, but still. Has he bothered to talk with our neighbors about how obnoxious their dog is? No. He'd rather do something stupidly passive-aggressive. It makes me wonder if this guy had ever said to his neighbors, hey, X bothers me. Or did he let it fester. It was strange to see known victims' advocate Andrew Holmes in the neighborhood. We see him a lot on the news; he addresses the media on behalf of the families a lot of the time, but it's usually in other neighborhoods. It's also ironic that this occurred across the street from a mental health facility. I'm not sure if this is surprising, but I don't know that this made the national news--either because shootings in Chicago seem so commonplace, or because there weren't enough victims to qualify it as something worthy of national news. Something like this shouldn't be commonplace. But welcome to America.
The story has been trickling out for the past couple days.
Man Charged With Murder After Fatally Shooting 5 Neighbors, Chicago Police Say
Published Oct 14, 2019 at 8:15 AM | Updated at 10:05 AM CDT on Oct 14, 2019
A 66-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say he fatally shot five of his neighbors Saturday evening at an apartment complex on Chicago's Northwest Side, according to police.
Krysztof Marek, of the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road, was charged with five felony counts of first degree murder, Chicago police said in a statement Monday morning.
Authorities said Marek went into a neighbor’s apartment at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and fatally shot four people as they ate dinner.
"For reasons we yet know don’t know, he opened fire on all four of those individuals, killing them all," CPD First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio said.
Officials said Marek then went to the the building’s third floor, where he confronted another resident and shot her. Police said Monday that the victims were a 61-year-old male, a 65-year-old-female, a 30 to 35-year-old female, a 53-year-old female and a 40 to 45-year-old male.
All five were taken to area hospitals where they were pronounced dead, police said Monday.
The Cook County medical examiner's office identified two of the victims over the weekend: 53-year-old Jolanta Topolska, who died early Sunday, and Tsvetanka Kostadinova, of an unknown age, who was pronounced dead Saturday evening.
Further details, including the identities of the three other victims, were not immediately available.
"It definitely wasn’t random. He lives in the building, he’s lived there for 15 years. He knows all the victims, but he’s not talking," Riccio said.
Riccio said the man, later identified as Marek, was a retired construction worker whose neighbors described him as having “anger management issues.”
He had a history of complaints from other residents, including noise complaints and "exchanging dirty looks," officials said.
"We don’t know what set him off tonight," Riccio said. "Most of the occupants inside the building have had problems with him in the past, but certainly nothing of this magnitude."
Riccio said there was no forced entry to the apartments. A handgun was used in the shooting and police were looking into how it was obtained.
‘I was face to face’: Witness, prosecutor describes moments after Dunning massacre
Posted 8:21 AM, October 14, 2019, by Mike Lowe and Judy Wang, Updated at 04:45PM, October 14, 2019
CHICAGO - A man charged with killing five people at a Northwest Side condominium complex is being held without bond.
Krysztof Marek, 66, faces five felony counts of first degree murder. In bond court Friday, a Cook County judge described the weekend shooting rampage as "evil on steroids."
Marek, a retired truck driver who had lived in the building on the 6700 block of West Irving Park for 15 years, and was at one point the condo association president, is accused of attacking his neighbors as they sat down to eat at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
"All four bodies dropped to the floor around the table," Assistant State's Attorney James Murphy said. "Victim 1, victim 2, victim 3 and victim 4, all sat around a set dinner table, with food on the table untouched."
The retired truck driver then allegedly climbed the steps to the third floor, where he encountered a witness.
The witness locked his door and rushed his wife and child to safety.
"I was face to face with that man," a witness told us. "I saw him... he saw me, and I know he’s coming."
Marek then allegedly shot another witness in the abdomen as she tried to escape. Police believe he followed her and then executed the woman with a shot to the back of the head.
Police said the victims were a 61-year-old male, a 65 year-old-female, a 53 year-old-female, a 30-35 year-old-female, and a 40-45 year-old-male. They were transported to local hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.
Two of the victims were identified as 43-year-old Tsvetanka Kostadinova and 53-year-old Jolanta Topolska.
The identities of the other three victims have not yet been released.
Authorities said Marek left two cryptic notes written in Polish that were tapped to his apartment door.
One of the notes read: "No mercy. Remember whatever s--- they do to you, you control it yourself, not them. Enough. You have to pay for it."
There were some clues pointing to a motive. Marek was living alone and not paying for his mortgage or association fees, Murphy said.
Residents in the building tell WGN that police responded to the complex two months ago, over reports that Marek had hit the son of one of the women killed. In the last week, neighbors said they had very tense interactions with Marek.
Five white crosses and flowers now sit in front of the complex to remember the victims.
I happened to catch the live shot of Judy Wang in front of the building this morning at 6:30, and behind her, directly in front of the building in question, there was a car parked against the curb, and a second car parked on it. The second car was at about a 45-degree angle, having hit the parked car. Judy went about her report, then mentioned at the end that there had just been this car accident and police had yet to arrive upon the scene. That stretch of Irving was then shut down for part of the morning. Dad was convinced it was related to all the news crews there covering the shooting.
This is so bizarre in so many ways. It makes me think of my dad, too, and how upset he gets with our neighbors. He does not own a handgun, thankfully, but still. Has he bothered to talk with our neighbors about how obnoxious their dog is? No. He'd rather do something stupidly passive-aggressive. It makes me wonder if this guy had ever said to his neighbors, hey, X bothers me. Or did he let it fester. It was strange to see known victims' advocate Andrew Holmes in the neighborhood. We see him a lot on the news; he addresses the media on behalf of the families a lot of the time, but it's usually in other neighborhoods. It's also ironic that this occurred across the street from a mental health facility. I'm not sure if this is surprising, but I don't know that this made the national news--either because shootings in Chicago seem so commonplace, or because there weren't enough victims to qualify it as something worthy of national news. Something like this shouldn't be commonplace. But welcome to America.