A 66-year-old man has been charged with five counts of murder after he was identified as the man who went on a shooting rampage at an apartment complex on Chicago’s Northwest Side, police said.
Krysztof Marek, a retired construction worker, was arrested on Oct. 12 outside an apartment building in the Dunning neighborhood, reported the Chicago Tribune, citing a police report.
The shooting began about 5:30 p.m. when Marek, who has lived in the building for about 15 years, reportedly went to his next-door neighbor’s unit with a handgun and fatally shot four people who were seated at a dining table. The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified one of the four victims as 43-year-old Tsvetanka Kostadinova. Relatives identified another victim as David Hanik, 61. The identities of the other two also shot in that unit have not been released.
Marek then allegedly went to another unit, where he shot 53-year-old Jolanta Topolska, police said, reported the Chicago Tribune. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition but died the next morning.
A spokesperson of Chicago Police Department wrote on Twitter that the incident was the result of a dispute between Marek and his neighbors.
Krysztof Marek, 66, formally charged by Detectives & Prosecutors with 5 counts of Murder in connection with Saturday’s devastating shooting on the NW side. Incident stemmed from a dispute between Marek & his neighbors and what he’s being accused of is nothing short of savagery. pic.twitter.com/U15Mg036cH
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) October 14, 2019
The building’s property manager told Chicago’s WGN-TV that Marek may have had financial issues and was facing a foreclosure notice. Some occupants inside the building also reported that they have had problems with him.
“I was face to face by this man,” a neighbor who recalled seeing Marek right before the shooting said. “I saw his eyes … I locked my door, grabbed my wife, and we start running.”
Other neighbors said Marek was acting “spooky” and “unstable” before the shooting, reported Chicago Sun Times. A woman told the outlet that the man “was always very friendly” until about six months ago, adding that the man had “snapped.”
Marek was accused of assaulting the son of one of his victims two months ago, but was not arrested at the time, the newspaper reported.
