Exactly one week after getting out of prison, Michael Mateus walked out of his West Side home and randomly shot a passerby on the street, prosecutors say. The next day, Mateus allegedly shoplifted a $2,200 jacket in River North. Now, he’s back in prison and facing two new felony cases.
Mateus, 64, had been released from prison on March 2 after serving time for residential burglary. Then, at 6:25 a.m. on March 9, he allegedly stepped out of his home and shot a 24-year-old man who was simply walking to work in the 5500 block of West North Avenue. The two did not know each other, and not a word passed between them before the shooting, officials said.
Mateus allegedly fired six times, striking the victim twice in the leg. Surveillance video captured the shooting from a distance, but the footage did not clearly show the gunman’s face, according to prosecutors. But CPD detectives pulled other footage to track the shooter’s movements, finding video that showed Mateus leaving his nearby home three minutes before the shooting and returning home ten minutes later wearing the same clothes as the gunmen, prosecutors claim.
Mateus’s parole officer later identified him from surveillance images, according to the CPD report…