Dad dies while protecting teen daughter in Chicago
CHICAGO - A father in Chicago died while trying to protect his 15-year-old daughter on a city street, reports CBS Chicago.
Michael Tingling, 59, has just picked up his daughter, Masharah Tingling, from school at Chicago Math and Science Academy on Wednesday, March 19, when he took her to get a snack.
After leaving the bakery, a man - later identified as Joseph Firek - brushed up against Masharah while she walked down the street with her father, reports the station.
"My dad put me behind him and told the man to go away," Masharah told the station.
"He threw the first punch and hit my dad in the chest. You see, my dad has a pacemaker."
Tingling reportedly walked nearly a block to an auto shop, and then collapsed.
"This man, he's following us," Masharah said. "He's screaming racial slurs, calling us n----- and telling us to go back to Africa, that he's going to burn our house down and stuff like that."
Tingling died at a hospital.
"I'm heartbroken, and I'm sad because I don't have him with me no more," said Masharah. "That was my last time seeing him, and I had to see him like that."Firek, who has a history of psychiatric illness according to CBS Chicago, is charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in Tingling's death.
Prosecutors say the altercation led to stress on Tingling's heart, causing him to die.
"It doesn't feel real," said Masharah. "It really doesn't."