After a 12-hour standoff, a SWAT team found a man dead on a roof on June 2 in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The gunshot to the head was ruled a suicide.
As the man engaged with police, he reportedly shouted threats and obscenities, which he had been doing for months.
“He’s on a loudspeaker, you know, speaking antisemitic things. He’s always playing antisemitic music,” one neighbor told The Chicago Tribune.
The man also flew multiple flags, including an upside-down U.S. flag, a smiley face and a red-and-yellow swastika on a makeshift scaffolding—almost like a crow’s nest on a ship—on the roof.
Police had been called 40 times about the man, reported the Chicago Sun-Times, and a community coalition had contacted government officials about the flag. Reviewing the man’s social media accounts, the Sun-Times found a history of making threats against government officials and promoting conspiracy theories.