A man suspected of stabbing his wife to death Tuesday in Portage Park was already facing charges of strangling her and attempting to kidnap her last month, but was released after GPS monitoring, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Hours after the stabbing on Tuesday, the suspect, 57-year-old Konstantin Beldi, was found dead inside a car a block away.
Belde and his wife, Lacramiwara Belde, 54, were formally identified Wednesday by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
An off-duty detective witnessed the stabbing around 2:25 p.m. in the 5600 block of West Leland Street, and was shot while trying to intervene, according to an initial statement from Chicago police.
Police said that the District 4 investigator fired shots in the direction of the suspect and was injured while trying to stop him. Lakramiwara Beldi died at the scene.
The investigator was being treated at Lutheran General Hospital for injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to a statement from police and sources.
Investigators are on the scene in Portage Park. A man who stabbed his wife to death obtained an order of protection on October 9, authorities say. Prosecutors attempted to detain him in Cook County Jail awaiting trial, but the judge denied the request.
Tyler Basiak Larivière/Sun-Times
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates police shootings, said it went to the scene and opened an investigation.
Court records show Belde was previously charged in a separate attack against his wife on Oct. 9 — the same day he received the emergency protective order she requested.
Prosecutors filed a motion that day to hold him in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial, but Judge Thomas E. Nowinski denied the request. Instead, the judge released the suspect under GPS monitoring, ordered him to refrain from possessing weapons, and banned him from visiting his wife's home, work or school.
According to Lakramiwara Beldi's request for a protection order, the second she has sought against her husband this year, she said he grabbed her as she was walking to the bus, tried to cover her mouth to stop her from screaming and tried to knock her unconscious. .
A bicyclist stopped to take photos of police working the crime scene Tuesday night.
Tyler Basiak Larivière/Sun-Times
“Someone heard me and started calling the police,” she wrote in the petition. “He got into the car and drove off. As he was driving, he threatened me, saying, ‘I will do that, you don’t believe I will do that,’ and he was pointing at a black object.”
Court records show Konstantin Beldi pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges of aggravated domestic battery involving choking, aggravated battery, attempted kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
Lakramiwara Beldi had previously filed another petition for a protective order against him on January 8, saying they had been separated since September 2023 and had three adult children together.
Lakramiwara Beldi claimed that the suspect was drinking alcohol at his home and asked her to leave during an argument, then grabbed her and dragged her into the bathroom. He then allegedly punched, slapped and kicked her while berating her.
Detectives at the scene of the stabbing on Tuesday. The suspect who police say stabbed his wife to death was found dead in a car a block away. An off-duty investigator who was injured while trying to intervene was treated at a hospital.
Tyler Basiak Larivière/Sun-Times
“I could kill you right now and put you in a bag and take you to the lake,” she recalled him saying, according to the petition. “I could get a gun and kill you all and you wouldn't know it. I don't care if the police take me because you left me.”
The woman wrote that the physical and verbal abuse continued for eight hours. When she finally escaped, he chased her, but she managed to escape.
Lacramiwara Belde claimed he was “physically and emotionally abusive” throughout their long relationship and was sending threatening messages. “Do you know how easy it is to kill someone?” I remembered him asking.
“I took this as a threat from (the suspect) because my grandfather killed my grandmother and then killed himself,” she wrote.
An emergency protective order was granted the same day as her petition, which noted that she filed a police report for domestic battery. Her husband was apparently not charged, and the previous battery case filed in 2002 was dropped.
The emergency order was rescinded on March 25, when the woman and her husband agreed to a so-called no-contact order. Among other things, the suspect agreed not to “harass, intimidate, physically assault or stalk his wife or interfere with her personal freedom.”
Nowinski, who has allowed the pair to remain free while awaiting trial, previously refused to allow an emergency protective order to be issued against Crocity Brand earlier this year. The convicted criminal allegedly sent threatening text messages to his ex-girlfriend and came to her apartment after his release from prison.
As Brand was taken back into custody, Nowinski ruled that the woman's case did not rise to the level of emergency and scheduled a subsequent hearing for March 13.
Brand showed up at the home again that morning and allegedly stabbed the pregnant woman and killed her 11-year-old son.
