Video shows Chicago detective firing at man as he stabbed estranged wife. 'What are you doing?'
Chilling video released Thursday shows an off-duty Chicago police detective shooting toward a man who was stabbing his estranged wife.
Lacramioara Beldie died from her wounds and her husband, Constantin Beldie, killed himself after attacking her around 2:25 p.m. Nov. 19 in Portage Park, according to Chicago police.
Constantin Beldie, 57, had been under court order to stay away from his wife. He was also on GPS monitoring because he had been charged with another attack on her a month earlier.
A home surveillance camera appears to show the detective chasing Beldie through the 5600 block of West Leland Avenue, a typically sleepy residential street. Videos showing the stabbing weren’t released.
In some of the videos, a woman can be heard screaming out for help as gunfire erupts.
“What are you doing? You’re crazy,” the woman says. “He killed her, call 911.”
Lacramioara Beldie, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene. Constantin Beldie was found dead nearby from an apparent suicide, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The detective wrote in a report that he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound while trying to stop Constantin Beldie. In a 911 call, the detective said his leg was injured.
Judge Thomas Nowinski, who had released Constantin Beldie on GPS monitoring, faced sharp criticism from advocates for domestic violence survivors who urged Chief Judge Timothy Evans to reassign Nowinksi to prevent him from hearing similar cases.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza went even further and pushed Nowinski to resign, saying she wouldn’t “trust him with a traffic ticket at this point.”
Nowinski had rejected prosecutors’ petition to have Constantin Beldie held in jail after he was charged in October with choking and attempting to kidnap his wife.
The case marked the second time Lacramioara Beldie filed for a protective order against her husband last year, yet Constantin Beldie was only placed on GPS monitoring with some restrictions.
A source close to the judge blamed the prosecution for failing to disclose important background information about the case.
Nowinski also raised concerns about the preparation of the evidence and facts of the case during the detention hearing.