Chicago SWAT Resolves Standoff with Individual Brandishing Flamethrower and Swastika Flag

HI INDIA NEWS DESK

CHICAGO, IL – SWAT teams were called to the West Humboldt Park neighborhood in response to a man armed with a flamethrower and flying a swastika flag from a rooftop. The incident took place in the 4100 block of West Chicago Avenue, resulting in blocked traffic in the surrounding area. A Chicago police spokesperson provided no further details.

Around 10:30 a.m., a helicopter reporter, Mike Lorber, observed the situation and reported that Chicago Avenue was closed off from Pulaski Road to Kostner Avenue. Lorber’s tweet indicated that a flamethrower, propane tanks, and a Nazi flag were visible from above.

After the SWAT team surrounded the building, Colin Boyle, a photographer for Block Club Chicago, heard a voice from inside cursing the Chicago police and playing the Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger.” According to neighbors, the man frequently goes onto the rooftop, where he fires the flamethrower, plays loud recordings with profanities directed at the president and police department, and occasionally fires a gun or makes threatening statements.

The building is located near Orr Academy High School, and members of a neighborhood group held a press conference outside the office of 37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts to address the swastika sign. The sign, which includes a yellow-and-red swastika, an upside-down American flag, a Ukrainian flag, a Chicago flag, a smiley face flag, and the flag of the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division, has been displayed on top of a building at the corner of Chicago and Kedvale avenues.

Police had been called to the same block in May 2022 for an automated gunfire detection alert and a report of a man pointing a laser at a police helicopter.

Farrah Walker, the West Humboldt Park Community Coalition Secretary, criticized the delayed response to the swastika sign, stating that if it had been in a different neighborhood like Lincoln Park or River West, it would have been taken down promptly upon reporting.