A 19-year-old man who fired shots at a Chicago police station in Rogers Park last year told witnesses he did it because he was angry about the then-recent shooting of Adam Toledo, prosecutors said Friday.
A Chicago police officer fatally shot Toledo, 13, a split second after the teen ditched a firearm following a foot chase in Little Village.
About three weeks later, on April 18, Lanny Cantway allegedly shot at the 24th District Police Station, 6464 North Clark, as he rode in the back seat of a passing car. Cantway fired about seven rounds at the building as three other people rode with him in the car, and a bystander watched from a nearby bus stop, Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Kelly said. Bullets struck the building’s wall, but no one was injured in the shooting, which unfolded around 10:21 a.m.
Cameras on CTA buses recorded the car the shooter fired from and police reconstructed its movements through license plate reader data and various surveillance cameras, according to Kelly. Police also released a surveillance image of the car as they tried to drum up leads.
Footage from a carwash near the police station allegedly showed Cantway and the vehicle’s three other occupants get out of the car, wait for it to be cleaned, and then climb back in about three minutes before the shooting.
Cantway’s large neck tattoo was visible on the video footage, and Chicago cops recognized two of the vehicle’s other occupants, Kelly said.
All three of the people traveling with Cantway pegged him as the shooter, and two of them said he did it because he was upset after seeing video of the officer shooting Toledo, Kelly alleged. COPA, Chicago’s police oversight agency, released the footage three days before the Rogers Park incident.
After police arrested Cantway on Wednesday, he initially blamed a fifth person for the shooting, but he later admitted to firing at the CPD station, according to Kelly. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied building.
Cantway has no criminal background, according to Suzin Farber, his public defender. She said he is the father of a two-year-old and he has worked at McDonald’s for about a month.
Judge Maryam Ahmad told Cantway that she believed a significant cash bail was appropriate because many people, including police officers, community members, and people needing shelter from the elements go in and out of police stations.
She ordered him to pay a $20,000 bail deposit to get out of jail on electronic monitoring.