Suspect in 3 deaths was killed by police in far-right influencer Nick Fuentes' neighborhood
BERWYN, Ill. (AP) — A man suspected in the killings of three people in Illinois was fatally shot by police in west suburban Chicago while in the neighborhood of a far-right political influencer.
Nick Fuentes said on X that the man, wearing a motorcycle helmet, was outside his home in Berwyn with a gun and another weapon, rang the doorbell and said, “Yo, Nick.” Fuentes had video from a porch camera Wednesday night.
The man shot at Berwyn police during a subsequent foot chase and was killed when officers returned fire, Chief Michael Cimaglia said.
The man was identified as John Lyons, 24, of Westchester, a Chicago suburb.
The man earlier “parked his car in front of my house and approached my door with his pistol drawn and what appears to be a crossbow. I was livestreaming at the time,” Fuentes said on X, where he also posted the porch video.
Fuentes' attorney, Bob Rascia, told The Associated Press that someone else in the home called police.
“Fuentes had a reasonable belief that this guy was there to do him harm,” Rascia said Friday, adding that Fuentes didn’t know him.
Illinois State Police are handling the investigation of Lyons' death. Spokesperson Melaney Arnold said investigators were aware of Fuentes' social media posts about an armed man at his door and in his backyard before the shooting.
“It is early in our investigation. We will provide more information when possible,” Arnold said.
Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white supremacist, is part of an emboldened fringe of right-wing “manosphere” influencers who have seized on Republican Donald Trump’s presidential victory to amplify misogynistic derision and threats online.
Fuentes was recently charged with a misdemeanor after a woman accused him of pepper-spraying her outside his home in November. His address was publicized following his “Your body, my choice” post on X. It was a twist on the “my body, my choice” abortion rights slogan.
Meanwhile, police in Mahomet, Illinois, 120 miles (193.1 kilometers) south of Chicago, were investigating the fatal shooting of three members of the same family, which occurred earlier Wednesday.
Lyons knew one of the victims, police Chief Mike Metzler said.
“Based on the information we have now, one of the victims was targeted,” Metzler told The News-Gazette. “This was not a random incident.”
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