CHICAGO _ Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Monday that the suspected gunman in the killing of an off-duty officer shot "the first Hispanic man he came in contact with" after an earlier petty dispute with a separate group of Hispanics.
The "nightmare" began about 2 a.m. Saturday, Johnson said, when Menelik Jackson got into a confrontation in the 600 block of North Clark Street with some Hispanic men who were on a party bus.
Jackson returned later with a gun, Johnson said, and "I guess he settled for the first Hispanic he saw," fatally shooting off-duty Chicago police Officer John P. Rivera and critically wounding a friend about 3:30 a.m.
Johnson credited detectives' round-the-clock work since the early morning Saturday shooting as well as surveillance cameras and license plate reader technology for leading to Jackson's arrest much more quickly than it otherwise would have happened.
Johnson said the department is pursuing hate crime charges against Jackson.
"It appears that he was just looking for a Hispanic person," he told reporters at a morning news conference at police headquarters.
Jackson, 24, of South Holland, and Jovan Battle, 32, of Chicago, were both charged in the shooting. Both are expected to appear later Monday for a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Jackson is charged with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder and resisting or obstructing a peace officer, according to Chicago police officials. Battle is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Both men were arrested in connection with the shooting after they were identified as taking part in the shooting that killed Rivera, 23, and critically wounded his friend, also a 23-year-old man, police said.
Jackson is accused of firing the fatal gunshots while Battle is accused of being a "co-conspirator" who was with Jackson at the time of the shooting, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Monday morning. Police are still seeking a third person of interest, he said.
In addition to witnesses, police were able to track down the license plate number of a getaway car, leading officers to the apartment of the man accused of shooting Rivera, Guglielmi said in a tweet Monday morning.
At the time of the shooting, four people were sitting in a parked car in the 700 block of North Clark in the River North neighborhood when they were fired upon. Another off-duty Chicago police officer and a female civilian also were in the car, but they were not injured, police said.
Jackson formerly had tried to become a Chicago police officer and also has a history of domestic violence arrests. He was arrested in a domestic violence case at the Chicago police academy when he went there July 3, 2017, for a polygraph test as part of the process of applying to become a police officer.
Johnson said he was outraged that Jackson "once thought he had what it took to wear a Chicago police star."
