CHICAGO — Dressed in a gas mask, bicycle helmet, dark suit jacket, white shorts, gloves, and a Hawaiian shirt and carrying a bag full of knives, Anthony Colone was a sight to behold, even as he rode the Red Line, where unusual visuals can be the norm.
A commuter was so intrigued by the 26-year-old that July evening, they posted a Snapchat video of him from the train. Officials say that Colone threatened the Snapchatter with a staple gun when he saw what they were doing. Thinking quickly, the commuter calmed Colone by complimenting his Darth Vader wristwatch until Colone exited the train downtown.
Around 4:10 a.m. the following day, July 14, Colone draped his arm around a 64-year-old homeless man, Edward Schultz, and they walked into Clarendon Park together. As the sun rose about an hour later, a passerby found Schultz stabbed to death on the park’s baseball diamond.
On Wednesday, prosecutors charged Colone with Schultz’s murder.
About 14 minutes after they walked into the park together, Colone emerged alone and walked toward the Wilson CTA station, prosecutors said yesterday. Citing surveillance videos, they said he stopped along the way to remove his white shorts, which now had large blood stains, and held the shorts in the air before tossing them into the street.
He entered the CTA station holding a knife, blood visible on his arm, and took the Red Line downtown, according to the proffer prosecutors presented during Colone’s bail hearing.
Chicago police allegedly found Colone’s suit jacket, gas mask, bike helmet, and Darth Vader watch scattered around the baseball diamond where Schultz was found. Broken serrated knife blades and intact knives were strewn about the field.
Police records indicate officers arrested Colone around 7 p.m. that night after they received 911 calls about a man exposing himself to children at a playground on the Far North Side.
When they found him, he was wearing the Hawaiian shirt and one glove, “surrounded by a circle of knives and pliers plunged into the ground around him,” the proffer said. He had a staple gun in his bag.
Colone was taken in for a psychiatric exam. He tested positive for amphetamine, cannabinoids, and benzodiazepines, prosecutors said. While police guarded him at the hospital, he allegedly made statements about murdering someone.
Prosecutors said Colone’s mother, who told police he has a history of mental illness and drug use, identified him in surveillance videos. The commuter who posted the Snapchat video identified him, too.
Colone has been in Cook County jail since being released from the hospital because he stopped complying with conditions of a probation sentence he received for felony aggravated battery of a peace officer last year.
At the end of Wednesday’s bail hearing, Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Colone held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.