Chicago Standoff Ends In Death

(CBS/AP)  A gunman and a female hostage were killed during a 23-hour standoff on the city's South Side, police said early Friday.

The gunman apparently shot the hostage and then himself, police said.

"At no time did the Chicago Police Department fire a weapon," 1st Deputy Superintendent Dana Starks said at a press briefing.

Starks said the gunman and victim were the only people found in the apartment. An additional hostage may have escaped earlier, he said.

The standoff began early Thursday after an armed man took his young neighbor hostage inside their apartment building.

Police SWAT team members entered the apartment just after 1 a.m. Friday after officers heard a shot fired, Starks said.

Inside, police found the gunman and his 22-year-old hostage gravely wounded. The two were transported to a hospital and later pronounced dead, Starks said.

Police have not yet released their identities. Starks confirmed that the two were neighbors, but added "the extent of their relationship we don't know."

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Click to watch neighbors' accounts of the gunman

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Sherry McKenzie said Thursday that one of the hostages was her niece, Tasha Cooks, 22.

She said Cooks used the apartment phone to call her great-grandmother earlier in the day. When asked if she was OK, Cooks responded, "Not really," and hung up, according to McKenzie.

The gunman's sister pleaded with her brother to cooperate with authorities Thursday afternoon. Later, frustrated relatives and neighbors began shouting at police to do more to end the standoff.

Officers had been negotiating with the man, and Superintendent Phil Cline had held out hope late Thursday that the situation could be ended peacefully.

[agnim]

"Innocent people don't like to be accused of committing crimes, be they citizens or the police themselves."

OlGreyGhost at 07:28 PM : Nov 25, 2006

Obviously you haven't been taught how the mind and the world works; and yet you had the power of life and death over others? Scary.

If you are PART OF A GROUP, you benefit from the groups positives and are cursed by its negatives.
That's how things are. You ARE NOT as 'innocent' as you so wrongly believe.

Considering your example, if America has a long history of racism, then for self-preservation especially in a threatening situation or individual, it makes good sense to assume racism until and unless there is incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

That is how healthy minds work. And that is how the world works: Gotta quickly MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON PAST EVENTS!

Trust me; your mind works the same way, works on the basis of MEMORY!

[olgreyghost]

Yes, Agnim, undeserved complaints and defamatory remarks are as deadly. Try thinking back to the last time you were accused of doing something you didn't do or something you did but had no malice in your intent. Think about it; your parents, your teachers, your employer, or even the police have had to say something to you once. Innocent people don't like to be accused of committing crimes, be they citizens or the police themselves. Wait for more information in the future instead of rushing to judge and find guilty just because IT'S the police you suspect.

I used to be accused of being a racist just because I had to handle someone of a different race than my own. Their biggest piece of evidence? "He's white, ain't he? He has to be racist..."

[grumpas]

What...no bushrocks1! What is this world coming to!

[titocordero]

Humancitizen

*** MAN!!!!!!!!!! Get your a$$ off this site and learn how to spell. Did someone read you the article. You need to stick to whatever it is you do best which obviously is not spelling.....

[agnim]

"The complaints and defamatory remarks are as deadly as the bullets criminals fire upon us."

OlGreyGhost at 06:40 PM : Nov 24, 2006

I bet though that the 'defamatory remarks' aren't as deadly as the police brutality with tazers or bullets, etc, which most likely triggered the 'complaints'?

[tinker3478]

A lot of hostage takers go into the situation hoping for "suicide by cop." All I can say is thank God he's dead-save the county the expense of a trial and the family of the hostage from having to relive their loved one's death in a courtroom only to see the murderer walk free on a technicality.

[agnim]

gmond at 05:19 PM : Nov 24, 2006

Guy, you are very obtuse.

As long as humans are killed there are going to be complaints; and there SHOULD ALWAYS BE complaints no matter who does the killing, because human life IS PRECIOUS!

A complaint is NOTHING compared to a killing!
The police are far better off with the complaint from frustrated onlookers than with a police killing.

If the police didn't kill anyone here, then no police will have to take leave from the stress; but they will surely weather a bit of complaint from understandably frustrated friends and relatives.

[olgreyghost]

My wife is so happy that I'm out of the "Blue" profession now. The complaints and defamatory remarks are as deadly as the bullets criminals fire upon us. They're slower but still as destructive in large quantities over a shorter than normal lifespan...

[gmond]

If a SWAT sniper had shot the hostage taker, I doubt the crowd would be cheering that the police had "done more to end the standoff". More likely they would be protesting that the police shouldn't have shot him. Seems like the cops are never right no matter what they do...

[irun5ks]

I would prefer that the gunmen just kill themselves and leave the innocent hostages out of it.