No bail for man charged with starting shootout near police headquarters that killed grandmother

Bail was denied Tuesday for a man charged with starting a shootout with a security guard who fired back and fatally struck a grandmother near Chicago police headquarters earlier this month.

Elbert Duncan, 47, faces a count of aggravated battery for his role in the exchange of gunfire Feb. 1, Chicago police announced Tuesday.

The guard, Victor Brown, has already been charged with firing the shots that killed 55-year-old Bobbye Johnson.

The night of the shooting, Duncan entered Jamaican Jerk King in the 200 block of East 35th Street where he had been banned and began making threats, prosecutors said during a hearing Tuesday.

Brown and a friend of Duncan had earlier gotten into a fight, according to prosecutors. Duncan and Brown then began arguing outside the restaurant, where Brown was working as security.

Duncan placed his hands in his jacket and fired once through his pocket, striking Brown in the leg at point-blank range, prosecutors said.

Duncan ran off and was a block away when Brown opened fire on the busy strip, prosecutors said. Brown missed Duncan and hit Johnson, 55, as she walked to a bank, prosecutors said.

The judge found Duncan’s actions initiated the chain of events that resulted in Johnson’s death.

Duncan has four previous felony convictions, including a 2005 aggravated battery to a child and a 1989 murder conviction. In 1989, Brown shot a person in the head and then shot at the person again after they had fallen to the ground.

The court found Duncan to be a “real and present danger to the entire community” and ordered him held without bail.