Witness hears 30 rifle rounds when FBI agents in riot gear gun down convicted bank robber on West Side

Tim Dunkin was relaxing, sitting outside his Garfield Park neighborhood home Thursday afternoon when he saw an SUV with its windows tinted suddenly get boxed in by two federal vehicles coming from alleys that connected to the one-way street while a third vehicle approached from behind.

Within minutes, Dunkin then heard at least 30 shots and saw agents with riot shields and long guns navigating around the 3700 block of West Lexington Street, where Abdulhafedh H. Abdulhafedh — a 25-year-old man on parole for a bank robbery — was fatally shot in an FBI-involved shooting.

“I ain’t never seen nothing like that in my life,” Dunkin, 34, told the Sun-Times on Friday.

The hail of gunfire didn't last long, and when they ended, Dunkin grabbed his cell phone and began taking videos of the aftermath.

At least five FBI agents were present as the block where the shooting occurred remained cordoned off by red and yellow crime scene tape Friday morning.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Abdulhafedh was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, which happened around 3 p.m. Thursday, according to the Chicago Fire Department, the FBI and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Abdulhafedh was released on parole Jan. 8 after being convicted of robbery of a financial institution, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections website.

Abdulhafedh was sentenced to four years behind bars for the crime, which was prosecuted out of Will County, according to the site.

Officials still haven't released details about what led to the shooting.

One man who stopped by the shooting scene Thursday said he was the dead man’s half-brother, but the man declined to give his name, saying he feared retaliation.

He said his half-brother had told him he’d been pulled over by federal agents earlier in the week. His half-brother, he added, had FaceTimed another one of their siblings as soon as he was pulled over Thursday, and was still talking to that sibling when the gunfire started.

One woman arrived sobbing and stood against the tape continuing to cry as investigators took pictures of an SUV pockmarked by more than a dozen bullet holes; others standing nearby hugged her. She later beckoned over CPD officers watching the scene to ask about which hospitals anyone shot may have been taken to.

Contributing: Violet Miller