CHICAGO _ Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Monday that the suspected gunman in the weekend 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 Latinos.
The "nightmare" began about 2:25 a.m. Saturday, in the city's River North neighborhood, police said, when Menelik Jackson got into a confrontation in the 600 block of North Clark Street with some Hispanic men on a party bus.
Jackson returned later with a gun, but the men were no longer there, Johnson said.
In what Johnson called "an act of cowardice," Jackson opened fire into a parked car about 3:25 a.m. a block from the initial confrontation, fatally shooting off-duty Chicago police Officer John P. Rivera, 23, and critically wounding the officer's friend, also 23, who is in the military reserve.
At a news conference at police headquarters, the superintendent said that the department would pursue possible hate crime charges against Jackson for targeting Rivera. Two others in the car, including another off-duty officer, were uninjured.
At a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. ordered that Jackson, 24, of South Holland, and co-defendant Jovan Battle, 32, of Chicago, be held without bond on one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder.
"Both gentlemen pose a real and present threat to the victims, the live victims in this case, this community and every other human being on the planet that they come into contact with," the judge said.
Cook County prosecutors said the confrontation outside a McDonald's with the men from a party bus escalated after a third suspect yet to be arrested was punched in the face.
The fight was caught on surveillance cameras but broke up when police arrived on the scene, according to Assistant State's Attorney James Murphy. Jackson and the third suspect left the area, while the group of Latinos boarded the party bus or walked away from the scene, he said.
By about 3:20 a.m., Battle had met up with Jackson and the third individual in an apparent effort to track down the Latinos, Murphy said.
"Where they at?" Murphy quoted Jackson as asking Battle. "Is that them?"
Battle, wielding a bottle, pointed it directly at Rivera's car multiple times, Murphy said. All three suspects approached the car, according to the prosecutor.
Surveillance video "clearly" shows Jackson pull out a handgun and aim directly at the driver's window a few feet away, Murphy said.
"Let's blow this bitch up," the prosecutor quoted surviving victims as hearing just before gunshots rang out.
Murphy said Rivera and his friends had nothing to do with the earlier altercation.
"If what the state is telling me is true, this is one of the most senseless and evil acts I've heard of," Lyke said. "All over a fistfight. So you got punched in the face. Punch back!
"I want the record to be crystal clear this court is not advocating violence," the judge continued. "I'm talking about how it used to be, where simple disputes were settled with fists and not guns. Are we tired yet? Are we tired?"
At his news conference, Johnson said that he was especially outraged that Jackson had applied in recent years to become a Chicago police officer. He was disqualified, however, after he was arrested in July 2017 on a domestic violence-related charge on the same day he was scheduled to undergo a polygraph test at the Chicago Police Academy.
"The most egregious part about him was that he actually once thought he had what it took to wear a Chicago police star," Johnson told reporters. " ... Today he stands accused of committing the ultimate disgrace to everything that this star stands for."
The superintendent credited detectives' round-the-clock work since the early morning Saturday shooting with the quick arrests. Surveillance cameras captured Jackson getting into a vehicle after the shooting as well as the vehicle's license plate number, Johnson said.
Staff from the one of the department's so-called "nerve centers" _ officially called Strategic Decision Support Centers _ entered the plate number into a license plate reader database. Meanwhile, police learned that officers on routine patrol had used plate readers from their squad cars to scan Jackson's plate after he fled the shooting scene, officials said.
That information showed he went somewhere within the South Side's Wentworth patrol district.
"We were able to saturate that particular area and pinpoint the location of the car, which ultimately led us to Mr. Jackson's apartment," Johnson told reporters. "If it wasn't for this technology, it would have taken far longer for the police, with the help of the gang and SWAT teams, to locate this particular individual."
Battle was picked up shortly after the shooting, wearing the same Pelle Pelle-brand jacket and red hoodie described by one of the surviving victims, prosecutors said.
Police were alerted to Jackson's involvement when an inmate in a monitored phone call from Cook County Jail identified Jackson as the shooter, Murphy said.
Officers conducting a search warrant found a .40-caliber handgun that matched shell casings recovered from the shooting scene.
Jackson also admitted to someone else that he shot the officer, Murphy said.
Battle told authorities that he was a "good Samaritan" who wanted to help out his fellow Gangster Disciples after they had been jumped earlier, Murphy said.
"He indicated that he wanted to help out ... because there were more people in the other group, and GDs have a code to help each other out," the prosecutor said.
Jackson also made incriminating statements, though it was unclear to whom. He admitted to shooting at the victim's car and said he was looking for the guys who jumped him, Murphy said.
At the news conference, Johnson said Battle in particular was "no stranger" to law enforcement, amassing a rap sheet that takes up 18 pages and includes as many as 10 convictions for assault, batter and narcotics offenses.
The superintendent also said Jackson has two convictions for domestic violence.
Battle's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Christopher Anderson, said his client was denied the opportunity to make phone calls at the police station. Battle is unemployed and receives Social Security assistance for bipolar disorder and depression, he said.
Jackson's attorney, Robert Willis, said Jackson has an associate's degree and works at a specialty auto parts shop. He has one child, he said.
