CHICAGO _ A veteran Chicago police officer fatally shot an unarmed man, including once in the back, during an off-duty incident early this month, , Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.
Officer Lowell Houser called 911 from his cell phone, identified himself to the dispatcher and announced that "a gentleman tried to attack me. I had to shoot him," Assistant State's Attorney Lynn McCarthy, said in court.
But a neighbor who heard a loud bang from outside looked out a window and heard two more shots as Houser stood across the street from the victim, Jose Nieves, 38, according to McCarthy.
Prosecutors said the two had an ongoing feud and that Houser had brandished a weapon at Nieves just last month. On the day of the shooting, at least one other witness saw the two arguing moments before the shooting outside the apartment building where Nieves lived and Houser frequently visited a female companion.
Prosecutors sought to have Houser held without bond, but Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered that the 28-year department veteran be released on his own recognizance while on electronic monitoring.
An autopsy found Nieves was shot through his lower left back with the bullet lodging in his chest. Another bullet pierced his right hand.
Houser's lawyer, William Fahy, said in court that Houser had acted in self-defense after Nieves threatened to shoot him and reached toward his waistband.
"This is not first-degree murder. This is self-defense," said Fahy, who indicated Houser had planned to retire as a cop at the end of 2017 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer months ago. "My client is anxious to have his day in court. He's anxious to clear his name."
Charges against local police officers in shootings, on- or off-duty, are rare, but Houser is the second Chicago police officer to face a serious criminal charge within days. Another officer was arrested Saturday on a charge of felony criminal sexual assault against an underage girl.
The charges come just after the release of a U.S. Department of Justice report that blistered the Police Department for employing badly trained and supervised officers who have little fear of discipline.
Prosecutors said there had been several previous altercations between Houser and Nieves, who was friends with children of Houser's female companion. Most recently, on Dec. 11, Houser brandished a gun, ordering Nieves back into his apartment, prosecutors said.
Nieves reported the incident to police.
On Jan. 2, Nieves and a friend were unloading boxes from his friend's car outside Nieves' apartment building in the 2500 block of North Lowell Avenue at about 9 a.m., prosecutors said.
Houser walked out of the building and got into his vehicle, lowered the window and began talking to Nieves' friend, asking her who she was.
"Do you know he treats women badly?" prosecutors quoted Houser as saying in reference to Nieves.
Nieves asked his friend what Houser had said and then walked over to the off-duty cop's vehicle and said that if Houser had a problem with him, he should talk to him directly, or words to that effect, prosecutors said.
A neighbor heard arguing in the street and saw through a window that Nieves was on the east side of Lowell Avenue walking north while Houser stood near his vehicle on the west side of the street, prosecutors said. The two were yelling, the neighbor told authorities.
The neighbor returned to watching TV but then heard a loud bang, prosecutors said. The neighbor looked outside again and saw Nieves standing near his friend's car across the street from where Houser stood near his vehicle.
Two more bangs followed, the neighbor said, and Nieves clutched his chest and fell to the ground between two parked cars, prosecutors said.
"(The neighbor) did not see defendant and Nieves engage in any physical contact nor did he see Nieves with a weapon of any kind," McCarthy told the judge.
