Chicago — An insurance agent working late in his Rogers Park office shot a four-time felon who broke into his business last week, prosecutors said as they filed charges against the accused man on Thursday.
The victim was still working at 1:45 a.m. on December 2 when he grabbed his gun to investigate a loud banging noise at the back door of his office in the 1900 block of West Howard. He encountered a man he did not recognize and fired several shots, officials said, and the burglar ran out the back door, which had been removed from its hinges.
Prosecutors said the business owner told police that he thought he had shot the intruder, and police searched the area for the burglar.
About an hour later, a 911 caller reported that a man claiming to be shot was knocking on their front door in the 7600 block of North Rogers, about a mile away.
Chicago police went to the scene and found Andre Shearer, 52, bleeding from a gunshot wound to his hand. Shearer is bald and was wearing a winter coat with fur around the hood and a jersey bearing the number 4, just like the burglar, prosecutors said.
When cops asked Shearer what happened to his hand, he mumbled and then claimed that he shot himself, according to prosecutors.
Officials said that surveillance video at the nearby Howard CTA station showed Shearer wrapping a rag around his right hand in the train station vestibule shortly after the burglary.
He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston for treatment.
Prosecutors charged him with burglary and two felonies for possession of narcotics because police allegedly found cocaine worth $3,000 and $100 worth of heroin in his book bag. Shearer’s criminal history includes an identity theft conviction in 2018 and burglary convictions in 2000, 2008, and 2013, according to prosecutors.
His public defender brought up the fact that the victim couldn’t pick Shearer out of a group of photos. But Judge Maryam Ahmad said Shearer’s gunshot wound and the video evidence were also relevant.
She ordered Shearer to pay a $600 bail deposit to go home on electronic monitoring. Separately, she held Shearer without bail for violating bond in a pending felony narcotics matter.
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