CHICAGO – A 27-year-old man facing arson and murder charges in the death of a Chicago firefighter couldn’t attend his pretrial detention hearing Saturday after he was hospitalized with injuries officials said he suffered when he set fire to a building he was squatting in.
Sheaves Slate, of Chicago, was charged Friday with murder and arson after firefighter Michael Altman, 32, died Tuesday after battling a Rogers Park apartment fire the day before — a fire authorities now say Slate set. Altman succumbed to third-degree burns that covered 90% of his body after he fell through the floor of the apartment building, 1757 W. North Shore Ave., Cook County State’s Attorney Bonnie Greenstein said in court Saturday.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet ruled on Altman’s cause of death, according to medical examiner’s data. A spokesperson for the office was not immediately available…