When Charlotta Pritchett picked up the phone and dialed 911 early Friday, she says she thought she was doing the right thing to help her boyfriend as he went through what she described as a mental breakdown.
But instead of getting the help she expected, Pritchett would be mourning his death by the end of the night.
Officers shot Timothy Glaze, 57, multiple times when responding to Pritchett’s call, and he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
Police were called to the Albany Terrace Apartments, 3030 W. 21st Place about 2 a.m. and according to a police dispatch recording, Pritchett, 56, reported she was being attacked by Glaze, who had a knife and a screwdriver.
Pritchett had an order of protection against Glaze that was in effect at the time of his death. They had been in a rocky relationship marked by highs and lows since 2018.
But Pritchett said that’s not the whole story.
Glaze and Pritchett were in her apartment building in Little Village on Friday when he began acting strangely enough for Pritchett to call for help. Glaze, who had three types of cancer, was saying things that didn’t make sense and he had an odd look in his eye, she told the Sun-Times Tuesday afternoon.
As police knocked on the door, they were confronted by Glaze who allegedly charged at officers while holding a knife, police said. That’s when officers fired, hitting Glaze multiple times, including in his chest, according to radio transmissions.
Pritchett was worried the cancer had spread to his brain and was affecting his behavior. But he wasn’t threatening her with the knife or otherwise harming her, Pritchett said.
As she was on the phone with the dispatcher, Pritchett told Glaze to put the knife down, which she said could have concerned the dispatcher.
“He wasn't trying to hurt me,” Pritchett said. “I never broke a nail, he never touched me, but his demeanor worried me.”
Pritchett went to a neighbor’s apartment after placing the call in case he did come after her. When she heard the officers get off the elevator on the sixth floor, she tried to meet them to explain the situation and clarify that Glaze hadn't harmed her.
But before she could reach the door, she heard officers telling Glaze not to move and gunshots — around 30 to 40 rounds.
“My blood turned to ice,” Pritchett said. “I froze, and the lady that I was sitting with said, ‘I'm so sorry, but your friend is dead.’”
“I didn't feel anything. I couldn't talk, I couldn't feel, I couldn't think.”
An autopsy Saturday determined Glaze died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Pritchett says Glaze was shot 28 times.
This could not be confirmed immediately by the medical examiner's office.
“I felt like CPD ripped out my heart 28 times,” Pritchett said. “And it was already tender because he was dying. This was not the way.”
Glaze had cancer of the liver, prostate and colon, and doctors said he didn’t have much longer to live, Pritchett said.
She knew Glaze was battling homelessness and health issues and needed help.
Glaze had been arrested several times for domestic battery with most charges later dropped. In 2014 he was convicted of trespassing at a North Side Jewel-Osco and sentenced to one day in prison, according to court records. Before that, he was convicted of domestic battery in 2006 and sentenced to 100 days.
Though much of Glaze’s life and death was marred by mental health challenges and domestic violence accusations, Pritchett said she hopes people can see he was a caring, loving person at his core.
“He was the type of person who would lay down his jacket over muddy water for you to walk across," Pritchett said.
In the days since the shooting, the community in the Chicago Housing Authority-operated Albany Terrace has been shaken. Activists are demanding a meeting with Police Department leadership and the early release of the body-camera footage, sooner than the 60 days required by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
When asked for comment, CPD referred the Sun-Times to COPA, which is investigating the shooting.
Charles Odum, a resident of the building and activist with the Union to End Slums, said police should have been more cautious coming to the scene.
“You come into a senior citizen home, why would you come in with guns drawn in a senior home?” Odum said.
Glaze’s family is demanding full transparency in the investigation into the shooting and will continue pushing for systemic change in hopes of preventing other police killings in the future, the family said in a statement.
“Timothy, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, deserved help, compassion, and care — not bullets,” Glaze’s family said in a statement.
Pritchett said she had called 911 before in situations with Glaze, and had been grateful for the police response, but said her recent experience has altered her view.
“I will never call 911 again, I don't trust that anymore. I don't trust CPD anymore,” she said. “I've heard about things like this, I've read about things like this. I never in a million years thought it would happen to me.”
