A bullet fired during a pre-dawn burst of gunshots inside the parking garage of Chicago's Kluczynski Federal Building pierced the window of a nearby office tower and came to rest in an employee break room, federal prosecutors revealed this week. No one was hurt, but the revelation added a new layer of alarm to a case that had already landed a 36-year-old Lynwood man behind bars on a federal weapons charge.
Edmund J. Horvath was ordered detained pending trial after a detention hearing Monday, with U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeannice Appenteng citing danger to the community and evidence of an untreated, diagnosed mental health condition, according to the Chicago Tribune. Appenteng reportedly said that an individual wielding such a weapon recklessly, without a license, in a manner that could harm citizens is dangerous and beyond acceptable bounds. Assistant U.S. Attorney Regina Jeon told the court the bullet struck the window of the Central Standard Building, which houses Wintrust financial offices at 231 S. LaSalle St., and ended up in an employee break room, per the same account.
ABC7 reported that gunfire erupted at about 4 a.m. on Oct. 20 outside the Kluczynski Federal Building in the 200 block of South Dearborn Street. Jeon reportedly noted the shooting happened just hours before the morning rush. Police recovered a Palmetto State Armory 9mm handgun and multiple spent shell casings near Horvath at a garage entrance, according to the Tribune's reporting.
Bicycle, a Stolen Gun and an Admission
Surveillance footage allegedly captured Horvath riding a bicycle down a ramp toward the federal building's restricted garage shortly before the shots rang out, ABC7 reported. The same footage reportedly showed Horvath riding alone, with no one behind him, according to Jeon's account in court. The handgun he is accused of firing had been reported stolen from a vehicle in Chicago just six days earlier, ABC7 reported.
Prosecutors said Horvath admitted to possessing and firing the gun, telling investigators he did it because people were chasing him, per ABC7's reporting. He also reportedly apologized for shooting at the people he claimed were pursuing him and told authorities his mistake was staying put after firing rather than continuing to move, according to Jeon's account. Horvath additionally told police he had faced felony charges before but that none had stuck, per the same source.
Horvath's attorney, Jeff Levine, pushed back on the government's characterization of the case during Monday's hearing. Levine argued that his client was charged with possessing the gun, not with actually shooting it, and said there was no accusation that Horvath stole the weapon, according to the Tribune's account of the proceedings.
Federal Charge Tied to Prior Domestic Battery Conviction
Horvath faces a federal charge of illegally possessing a firearm as someone previously convicted of a crime of violence, stemming from a misdemeanor domestic battery conviction, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. CWBChicago likewise reported that the federal charge is tied to that prior domestic-violence conviction.
That earlier case stemmed from the death of Horvath's 10-month-old daughter, Akira. Reports conflict on some of the details. The Tribune reported Horvath was arrested in 2019 on murder charges in connection with Akira's scalding death, later pleading guilty in 2021 to reduced charges of misdemeanor reckless conduct causing bodily harm and receiving 948 days of time served in Cook County Jail, along with an order to take parenting classes. CWBChicago, however, reported Horvath was charged in 2018 with first-degree murder and ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct, receiving 12 months of social-service probation along with the same 948-day time-served sentence.
Prosecutors said at the time that Akira's injuries were consistent with boiling water being poured on her body and could not have been caused the way Horvath described, according to the Tribune. Horvath had claimed the infant's skin was red and peeling while she was being bathed, per that same reporting.
Multiple outlets, including ABC7 and the Tribune, identified Horvath as 36 years old and living in Lynwood, though a Citizen report identified him as 26. No one was struck by gunfire or injured in the Oct. 20 incident, according to CBS News Chicago, which also reported that a bullet hole was visible in the Central Standard Building's window.
