On Aug. 3, at approximately 9:45 p.m., police officers responded to a call that a resident in the 800 block of Howard Street had shot himself while in his apartment. Police found a 31-year old male on the floor with a shotgun wound to his head, said Commander Diane Davis of the Evanston Police Department. The shotgun was lying beside him. Evanston fire department paramedics transported the man to Saint Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead, said the Commander.
A subsequent police investigation determined that the man was in his apartment with several of his friends, and he retrieved his shotgun and began showing it off. His friends became alarmed and told him to put it away. The man ejected two or three rounds, held the shotgun to his cheek, told his friends it was empty and pulled the trigger, said the Commander.
Detectives interviewed the friends who were in the apartment, and all gave consistent accounts of what had happened, said the Commander. The evidence technicians processed the scene. The body and the evidence corroborated the witnesses’ accounts, she added. The medical examiner was notified and after hearing the facts of the case released the scene.