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Chicago Police Standoff Ends with Nazi Member's Death

A SWAT team responded to the 4100 block of West Chicago Avenue in West Humboldt Park over an armed man on an abandoned warehouse roof.

Neighbors of a man involved in a standoff with Chicago police Friday after he was seen brandishing a gun from the roof of a Humboldt Park building said they have been trying to bring attention to the situation for more than a year.

The man, who later took his own life inside the building in the 4100-block of West Chicago Avenue, had been the subject of more than 40 calls for service since January 2022, a police department source told the Sun-Times.

An autopsy revealed he died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. His death was ruled a suicide.

Neighbors said they reported seeing the man sitting on a makeshift platform atop the building, possibly with a gun, and had displayed an illuminated board with a swastika painted on it.

Along with the Chicago neighbors, NGO StopAntisemitism was following the situation as it unfolded.

Officers responded shortly before 10 a.m. Friday to a report of a person with a gun on a roof, according to police, who said the man went inside and refused to come out. About 12 hours later, a SWAT team entered the building and found the man dead.

A review of his social media accounts showed he had a history of making threats directed at government officials and had shared conspiracy theories.

In one Facebook post, he linked to a video that claimed to depict a fleet of UFOs from the "milky way 57th legion," and last week shared a picture of a mannequin hanging from a noose in what appears to be a law enforcement uniform with the caption "this is for you Chicago police department ... and homeland security."

Court records showed he had been arrested on low-level drug charges decades ago, as well as some traffic offenses, but he had no recent charges.

"All of you and this operation against me will be executed," he wrote in a separate Facebook post as recently as Thursday. "Take that to the bank and take that to the grave."