Non-Compliant Sex Offender Accused of Attempted Murder of Chicago Police Officer

A non-compliant sex offender with two active warrants, now accused of trying to murder a Chicago Police Officer, bragged to cops who arrested him that he just got out of prison for beating other police officers, prosecutors say.

Menard Allison, 34, was ordered detained Tuesday on charges of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer and several other felonies stemming from a Saturday night encounter near 67th and Halsted streets that started like a slapstick comedy but soon turned deadly serious.

Shortly before 8 p.m., two uniformed officers in a marked squad car saw Allison riding a scooter recklessly, cutting through parking lots, blowing through traffic signals, and failing to yield to traffic, according to prosecutors. They followed him and watched until he ultimately rode up onto a sidewalk and crashed into a pole.

The officers pulled up to make sure Allison, who was wearing a ski mask, was OK. But one officer noticed a bulge weighing down Allison’s right jacket pocket and asked what it was. Allison reached into his left sweatshirt pocket and produced a phone. When the officer asked again about the right pocket, Allison ran.

Prosecutors said he fled into the parking lot of Kennedy King College, where, by coincidence, a third uniformed officer in a marked car was just pulling in on patrol. That officer saw Allison running from the other unit, and his in-car camera recorded what happened next: Allison allegedly pointed a handgun with his right hand at the officer’s car and fired multiple shots. The camera captured several muzzle flashes and a blue laser beam trained on the squad car, as well as a bullet striking the pavement between Allison and the vehicle, prosecutors said. No injuries were reported.

Officers arrested Allison a few minutes later after searching the area. A search of his person allegedly turned up nine packages of suspected cocaine. Evidence technicians recovered a black mask in the vacant lot where Allison was taken into custody, along with a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun fitted with a blue laser sight and a 16-round magazine from a neighboring yard. Three 9mm shell casings were recovered from the spot in the parking lot where Allison opened fire, and ballistics testing confirmed they matched the recovered gun, prosecutors alleged. They said a gunshot residue test administered less than an hour after the shooting came back positive on Allison’s right hand.

While being processed at the police station, Allison allegedly told officers he would punch one of them and suggested they run his name, saying it would show he had just gotten out of prison for beating police.

Prosecutors said Allison received a four-year prison sentence for unlawful use of a weapon in 2021 after surveillance video showed him crashing into multiple vehicles, getting out of the car, and firing multiple rounds at passing cars, at least one of which was occupied. A separate, consecutive three-year sentence was handed down that year for aggravated battery of a peace officer. In that incident, prosecutors said Allison jumped from the top of a six-foot fence onto a porch and then leaped onto officers who were placing another person into custody, punching one of them in the face before being subdued. At the time of both offenses, Allison was on bond and on probation.

Prosecutors also outlined convictions going back to 2012 for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and failure to register as a sex offender, as well as a 2015 aggravated fleeing and eluding case in which he ran from police, blew through multiple stop signs, and crashed into a barrier wall along the Dan Ryan Expressway.

His sex offender registration requirement stems from a 2006 adjudication for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, when Allison was sentenced to the Youth Department of Corrections. Prosecutors say he was not in compliance with his registration obligation at the time of Saturday’s incident.

Allison also had two active warrants at the time of his arrest for failing to appear on misdemeanor matters out of Sangamon County.

He is charged with attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated discharge of a firearm toward a peace officer, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a controlled substance, and failure to register as a sex offender. A judge ordered him detained pending trial on Tuesday. The name of the judge was not immediately available due to a technical issue with the court clerk’s database.

Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.