A 25-year-old man who was on parole for a bank robbery has died in a shooting involving an FBI agent Thursday afternoon in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, officials said.
Abdulhafedh H. Abdulhafedh was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, which happened around 3 p.m. in the 3700 block of West Lexington Street, according to the Chicago Fire Department, the FBI and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy is scheduled for Abdulhafedh, of an unknown address.
Abdulhafedh was released on parole Jan. 8 after being convicted of robbery of a financial institution, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections website. Abdulhafedh was sentenced to four years behind bars for the crime, which was prosecuted out of Will County, according to the site.
Chicago police officers initially responded to the scene, but officers have turned the investigation over to the FBI, the department said.
Authorities have not released information about what led to the shooting. No other information was available.
“The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously,” a spokesperson for the FBI Chicago Field Office said in a statement. “In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division. As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide.”
One man who stopped by the shooting scene said he was the dead man’s half-brother, but the man declined to give his name, saying he feared retaliation. He said his half-brother had told him he’d been pulled over by federal agents earlier in the week. His half-brother, he added, had FaceTimed another one of their siblings as soon as he was pulled over Thursday, and was still talking to that sibling when the gunfire started.
As the FBI continued to process the scene, about 15 people stood in the parkway of South Independence Boulevard, across from the scene, as various law enforcement vehicles — including at least two evidence technician vehicles and much earlier, an armored car — entered and exited under crime scene tape.
One woman arrived sobbing and stood against the tape continuing to cry as investigators took pictures of an SUV pockmarked by more than a dozen bullet holes; others standing nearby hugged her. She later beckoned over CPD officers watching the scene to ask about which hospitals anyone shot may have been taken to.
By around 5:20 p.m., most of the Chicago police and fire vehicles on scene had left, leaving only a few to guard the scene as FBI agents checked the black SUV that appeared to be at the center of the investigation. People living on the block and trying to return home were still being denied entry.
