Sources say Kaczor, 24, allegedly swung at the responding officers with the ax, prompting them to shoot him. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police say that a Des Plaines police officers fired at least four shots and those four shots ended up killing Kaczor.
Friends of Kaczor say he moved to Elmwood Park with his family from Poland. About one year ago, he moved to Des Plaines.
Kaczor lived in a home with friends and police say that someone inside the home dialed 911 and reported that gunshots were fired. Officers responded to the neighborhood. One of the officers saw a man wielding an ax. The officer confronted the man a few blocks away on Oxford Road. Police say that the officer told the man to drop the ax. Instead, though, he approached the officer. Police say that the officer shot and killed Kaczor. That lethal force has upset Kaczor's friends.
"Why they have to kill him? They should Taser him or whatever. I'm 190 pounds, and he was 120-something pounds," said Lukasz Ciukaj, Kaczor's friend.
"Someone wielding an ax in a threatening manner like that is a lethal weapon in our eyes. We used a lethal weapon on the back end to take care of the problem," said Chief Jim Prandini, Des Plaines Police. "This was a use of force situation that involved deadly force, and we used deadly force."
Police say that they have been called to Kaczor's home in the past because of underage drinking. They also said he had a pending DUI case in Chicago.
State police have taken over the investigation. They're trying to figure out why Kaczor was in the streets wielding an ax. The officer who was involved in the shooting is now on administrative leave which is standard procedure.
