CHICAGO — A contractor doing work inside a Chicago apartment building called police after finding what appeared to be an assault rifle and explosives.
“I just thought about the bombing in New Orleans and the thing that happened in Vegas,” said Melissa Carraway, who was in the building working on radiators inside apartments.
“There’s a suitcase with explosives that said ‘C4’ and I googled the pictures. Looks like military stuff. I saw a big rifle by a window. I said I’m going to call the police.”
The building in the 500 block of E. 33rd Place was evacuated while the Chicago police bomb squad checked the apartment. Authorities determined the gun and explosives were fake but video shared with WGN showed realistic-looking devices as well as a bulletin board with City of Chicago and private security identification as well as Chicago police and fire insignia.
Police say a man is in custody but has not been charged.
A source tells WGN Investigates he’s the same man who was fired from the Chicago Fire Department in 2022 and threatened a mass shooting.
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A relative called police back then to say he came home, made threats of a shooting spree at the fire academy, gathered several guns and left.
“They say he is suicidal, depressed,” a police dispatcher announced over the radio in 2022. “He was terminated from his employment today. He took a gun and fled. Threatened to shoot up the fire academy.”
Officers found the man two miles from the fire academy and took him into custody after a brief stand-off.
WGN is not identifying the man because he wasn’t charged in the 2022 incident and has also not been charged with Monday’s scare.
Records show a man by the same name was hired by a different city agency after the 2022 threat against the fire academy. That agency continues to employ him today. A spokesperson for that city department did not immediately provide a comment.
