Nordstrom shooter, victim's sister denied protective orders

CHICAGO -- Court records show Marcus Dee, who fatally shot his ex-girlfriend Nadia Ezaldein and himself at a downtown Chicago Nordstrom Friday night, and Ezaldein's sister both sought and were denied protective orders against the other last spring.

A series of no-contact requests filed with the court alleged cracked ribs, busted phones and threats to kill. A little less than eight months before Ezaldein was killed, her sister was so concerned for her safety that she went to court.

In one of her requests for a no-contact order, Ezaldein's sister alleged that Dee "physically abused my sister, cracked her ribs, punched her jaw... stabbed her jacket... and put a gun in her mouth."

Exaldein's sister also wrote that Dee "left a voicemail threatening to kill himself because we involved the cops/law."

Dee, who is the son of two Chicago police officers, filed his own no-contact order request against Ezaldein's sister the day before she filed hers. In his request, he claims she threatened "to get me arrested, put a restraining order on me to get me kicked out of the Army," and then "threatened to have her brother kill me."

Separate judges denied both requests for no-contact orders, citing insufficient evidence.

On Friday, Dee shot Ezaldein while she was working at the Nordstrom store in River North, then turned the gun on himself. While Dee died during the initial incident, Ezaldein was hospitalized in critical condition and died a day later.

Police are now investigating whether or not the shooting could have been prevented.

"The investigation follow up is into his background, where the gun came from," said Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy. "He actually had a valid firearms owner ID card at one time, so that's taking a bit longer than we want. And whether or not there was any way for us to prevent that from happening."

McCarthy revealed Monday that Ezaldein reported an "incident" to police the weekend before the Nordstrom shooting. A source says Dee punched a male friend of Ezaldein's.

The weapon Dee used in the Nordstrom shooting did not belong to either of his police officer parents, Chicago police confirmed Monday.