Chicago Cop Charged With Murder Of Unarmed Man Will Await Trail From Home

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jan 19, 2017 9:05PM

Lowell Houser, CPD handout

The Chicago cop charged with first-degree murder in the off-duty shooting death of an unarmed man has been released and placed on electronic monitoring while he awaits trial.

Prosecutors in bond court on Thursday argued for Lowell Houser, 57, to be held without bail, but Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ruled Howell released on his own recognizance in advance of his criminal court date.

Houser, a 28-year veteran of the Chicago police department, was charged Wednesday with the murder of Jose Nieves. Nieves, 38, was shot and killed on Jan. 2, at around 9:30 a.m. after an altercation escalated, police said. Houser was identified as the shooter on Wednesday, when murder charges were filed by the office of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.

Prosecutors said on Thursday that Houser had pulled a gun and threatened Nieves during a run-in just weeks before the shooting. That argument seems to dovetail with family statements to the media after the shooting. “911 calls had been made before about that gentlemen pulling out his gun at my brother," Nieves’ sister told WGN.

Nieves and a friend were moving in boxes on the morning of the shooting. According to the Sun-Times, Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy said in court that Houser asked Nieves’ friend, “Why are you helping him? Are you his mother? You know he treats women badly?” (Houser had a “female companion” who lived in the same building as Nieves, prosecutors reportedly said.) Nieves at some point later told Houser to address him directly.

A neighbor later heard a loud altercation and saw Nieves and Houser arguing. A short time later, he heard three loud bangs, McCarthy said, according to reports.

Houser called 911 and told the dispatcher, “A gentleman tried to attack me. I had to shoot him,” McCarthy reportedly said.

Houser's murder charge and bond court appearance follow closely on the release of the Department of Justice's scathing findings in their investigation of the Chicago Police Department.

The murder charge comes in the wake of the Department of Justice’s scathing findings in a 13-month investigation of the Chicago Police Department.