CHICAGO — A man who threw up gang signs and pointed a gun at another man in a McDonald’s parking lot got shot in the head by the other man, who happened to be an off-duty Chicago police officer, officials said.
Carlos Negrete, 25, was on bail for a pending felony gun case at the time, prosecutors said as they announced felony charges against him on Sunday afternoon.
The officer changed out of his uniform at the end of his shift at McCormick Place around 10:30 p.m. Friday and drove to McDonald’s, 2844 West 47th Street, prosecutor Jonathan Huff explained during Negrete’s bail hearing.
Restaurant surveillance footage allegedly shows the officer sitting in his car in the parking lot as Negrete pulls up next to him in an SUV shortly after 11 p.m. Negrete exchanged words with the off-duty cop and then made gang hand gestures, Huff said.
The situation escalated further when Negrete pulled out a handgun with a laser sight attached and pointed it at the officer, according to Huff. He said the laser is visible on the security video.
Believing that he was about to be shot, the officer pulled out his firearm and shot Negrete in the head, Huff said.
Negrete was able to drive away despite his injuries, and the officer reported the incident to CPD.
Huff said Negrete, shot in the forehead, arrived at Mt. Sinai Hospital around 11:30 p.m. in the same SUV, which was being driven by someone else.
Investigators found four spent shell casings inside the SUV, but they did not find a gun in the car or in Negrete’s possession, according to Huff.
Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered Negrete to pay a $20,000 bail deposit to be released on electronic monitoring on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and possession of cannabis.
McCarthy also held him without bail for violating bond in a pending felony gun case.
In that incident, Negrete and another man pulled up to a house in the 2600 block of West Lithuanian Court that police officers were staking out in preparation for a search warrant on January 29, officials said. Suspecting that the person targeted in the search warrant was in the vehicle, officers detained the driver and arrested Negrete as he ran toward the house with an open bottle of Modelo.
Prosecutors said both men had firearms. McCarthy presided over Negrete’s bail hearing the next day and set bail at $5,000. He posted 10% of that and went home. Officials did not say if he was targeted in the search warrant.