CHICAGO _ Chicago police on Sunday announced charges against a man they say shot to death a man trying to defend a relative in a Burnside neighborhood home on the South Side Thursday, although investigators have questioned the accuracy of claims made by that relative.
Kenneth Malone, 25, has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of James Lewis, 66, inside his home about 9 p.m. Thursday, according to Officer Michael Carroll, a Chicago police spokesman.
Detectives said Malone ran from the home but was arrested a short distance away. He was to appear in bond court for a hearing Sunday on a charge of first-degree murder, officials said.
A 17-year-old woman who also lives in the home initially told police that she entered her bedroom and a man she didn't know was standing there. She told investigators he tied her up and sexually assaulted her before being confronted by Lewis, who came into the room after hearing her screaming, officials have said.
However, Malone was not charged with any other crimes related to the teenager's claims. A police source said Friday that there were "inconsistencies" in her account of the events and that she may have let Malone in the home.
"We don't have anything further about other possible charges," Carroll wrote in an email Sunday morning.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi earlier said investigators "certainly have an idea of what transpired" but would not go into detail.
"We're questioning the validity of the initial story," Guglielmi said Friday.
During the confrontation, Lewis, a retired Amtrak mechanic, was shot multiple times and was treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he later was pronounced dead. He died of gunshot wounds to the head and back, according to the medical examiner's office.
Longtime friend Mike Fricka, who spoke to Lewis by phone hours before his death, described him as an upstanding gentleman.
"Every time someone passes, everyone says they were the nicest person in the world. But Jim was," Fricka previously told the Tribune.
