The Latest: Chicago police talked with man before gunfire

CHICAGO – The Latest on a police standoff with a man suspected of killing three people in Chicago (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Chicago Police say the man who shot himself after an hours-long standoff with authorities spoke with them on the phone before he fired shots at officers.

Deputy Chief Steve Georges says a gun was recovered from the hands of the man, whom they wanted to question in the shooting deaths of three people Wednesday night.

Georges also said police had a short conversation over a telephone with the suspect, who hasn’t been identified, after which he appeared in a window and fired 10 to 12 shots at police.

He also said authorities worked with the man’s mother to record a message that was played as a means to get the man to surrender.

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3:45 p.m.

Chicago police say a suspect in the killing of three people who was in a standoff with authorities has apparently killed himself.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EHL’-mee) says members of the department’s SWAT team rushed into the house Thursday afternoon after firing gas canisters in the hopes the man would surrender and found his body inside.

The man was being sought for questioning in the shooting deaths of three people Wednesday night in the West Englewood neighbourhood on the city’s South Side.

Police spent hours outside of the home and exchanged gunfire with the man after he opened fire from a window. The police later brought in relatives of the man who urged him to surrender peacefully.

The man has not been identified.

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1 p.m.

The family of a man who’s a suspect in the killing of three people in Chicago is on the scene of his standoff with police. They are urging the man to surrender peacefully after he exchanged gunfire with SWAT officers.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EHL’-mee) says officers also used gas canisters Thursday to try to get the man to give himself up.

He’s being sought for questioning in the shooting deaths of three people Wednesday night in the West Englewood neighbourhood.

The man fired on officers from a window, and SWAT members fired back. Deputy police Superintendent John Escalante says officers then saw the man run upstairs, but it was unclear whether he’d been struck.

Speaking to video cameras outside, Escalante assured the man, if he was watching TV, that police wanted the confrontation to end peacefully.

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10:15 a.m.

A possible suspect in the killing of three people in Chicago has fired shots at officers surrounding a far South Side home where he is barricaded.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EHL’-mee) says officers returned fire but it was unclear if the man was hit. No officers were hurt.

Police with loudspeakers are calling on him to surrender.

Police are searching for a man who killed three people Wednesday night in the West Englewood neighbourhood.

Police spokeswoman Laura Amezaga says the shooter knew the victims. A 30-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man were shot in the head. A 26-year-old woman was shot in the back.

Deputy police Superintendent John Escalante says the victims appear to have been from the same family.

Escalante says there’s no threat to the broader community.

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9:30 a.m.

A possible suspect in the killing of three people has barricaded himself in a home on Chicago’s far South Side.

Police spokeswoman Laura Amezaga said Thursday that SWAT team members have surrounded the home in the Fernwood neighbourhood.

She says a man inside is a possible suspect in the killings of three people Wednesday night in the West Englewood neighbourhood.

Amezaga says the shooter knew the victims, but she did not have information about their relationship.

She says a 30-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man were shot in the head, and a 26-year-old woman was shot in the back.

Deputy police Superintendent John Escalante says the victims appear to have been members of the same family.

Escalante says police don’t think there is any threat to the broader community.