The suspect identified himself as part of a movement known as SHARP, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice
A Chicago man charged with pushing a Vietnamese fisherman into Montrose Harbor over the weekend and causing the man to drown told his friends that the people fishing on a pier “looked hot and need to go for a swim,” police said today.
The suspect, John J. Haley, 31, of the 2100 block of North Point Street, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Du Doan, 62. Police alleged a drunken Haley ran up to Doan from behind early Saturday and pushed him into Montrose Harbor.
Haley had been drinking and was acting so erratically before the attack that his friends asked him to leave the lakefront with them, Belmont Area Homicide Lt. Anthony Riccio said at a news conference this morning.
“He told members of his group, ‘Some of these fishermen look hot, and they need to go for a swim,’ ” Riccio said.
Haley also has been charged with aggravated battery in a similar case July 31, Riccio said. The fisherman whom he pushed into the lake in that case was able to swim to safety, Riccio said.
Cook County Judge Israel Desierto set Haley’s bail at $1.5 million this afternoon at the Criminal Courts Building, 2601 S. California Ave.
“We believe the evidence will show my client did not push or intend to hurt this individual in this matter,” Haley’s lawyer, Marc Gottreich, said at the hearing.
But Assistant State’s Atty. Maria McCarthy said Haley gave a videotaped statement to police admitting his involvement in the weekend incident. He also admitted to police his involvement in the July 31 case, McCarthy said.
“These victims didn’t stand a chance,” McCarthy said in court today. “They had no idea what was going to happen to them, and in the case of Mr. Doan, that was a death sentence.”
She said after Haley pushed Doan he was laughing and bragging to his friends about what he had done as he ran back to the car.