The Chicago man accused of fatally shooting 34-year-old Alexander Nesteruk in the Lincoln Park neighborhood had a “multi-paged plan to harm” someone else along with maps with X’s marking locations in the city and several Illinois colleges, authorities laid out in court Friday.
John Conway, 35, was ordered detained Friday after he was captured on surveillance footage pulling out a gun and pointing it at Nesteruk in the 2400 block of North Clark Street on Nov. 27, prosecutors told a Cook County judge during a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Conway then shot Nesteruk, with whom he shares no known connection, while the man’s empty hands were at his sides, prosecutors said.
Conway, who was charged with first-degree murder, was arrested Wednesday at 1:27 a.m. He turned himself in after several witnesses recognized him from photos and videos Chicago police released earlier this week to help identify him.
Police removed Nesteruk from the Lincoln Park area on Nov. 27 after he was “behaving erratically” by making “loud incoherent statements” and kicking car doors, prosecutors said. He returned in the afternoon, and his demeanor, while initially calm, again became “erratic” toward passersby.
While Nesteruk walked south on Clark Street just before 4 p.m., surveillance footage showed him approaching Conway, who lived nearby, wearing all-black clothing and carrying a black duffle bag. Nesteruk appeared to do an “air kick” toward Conway, but didn’t actually make contact with him, prosecutors said.
At that point, the men were separated by a full sidewalk square, prosecutors said. Conway pulled out a handgun from his right pocket and trained it at waist level on Nesteruk, who had skipped backward and came to a stop facing Conway with his “empty hands at his sides.”
Conway stepped forward, raised his right arm and shot Nesteruk once, prosecutors said. Emergency services didn’t recover any weapons from Nesteruk, prosecutors added.
Conway paused briefly, watching as Nesteruk fell to the ground. Video shows him walking at a steady pace south on Clark Street and tucking his gun into a holster in his pocket, prosecutors said. He went to a local gym where he was a member until about an hour after the shooting. Chicago police cars drove past him while on the way to the scene of the crime, prosecutors said.
Nesteruk, of Wheaton, was taken in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he died Monday afternoon, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy on Thursday confirmed that Nesteruk died from a gunshot wound to the chest, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Police recovered the bullet that killed Nesteruk from a nearby business that he was standing in front of when he was gunned down, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also said the handgun pictured in the videos matched the revolver Conway — who was issued a concealed carry license — purchased in 2020.
During a search of Conway’s Lincoln Park apartment, police found the revolver they believe was used in the shooting along with six other firearms, including three handguns and a “sniper-type rifle” with a scope and bi-pod stand. They also found multiple types of ammunition, ballistic armor, night vision equipment, a cellphone jammer and a notebook that indicated he zeroed in his rifle up to 800 yards, prosecutors said.
They also recovered a map of a Chicago neighborhood with X’s marking specific locations, an Illinois map with several colleges circled and a written document with “derogatory language and a separate multi-paged plan to harm an unrelated individual at a specific event with notes detailing escape routes.”
In ordering Conway detained, Judge Caroline Glennon-Goodman said electronic monitoring or home confinement wouldn’t be appropriate because they wouldn’t prevent Conway from using weapons to settle future disagreements. She said the shooting on a public street put the community at risk, and the “randomness heightens the threat he poses.”
Conway returns to court later this month.
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