Two men were “making fun of one another” and exchanged a dozen phone calls before one shot the other at point-blank range during a deadly Rogers Park shooting caught on surveillance video, prosecutors said Wednesday.

       Steven Hayer was charged with first-degree murder in the June 28, 2020, death of Angelo Pullum, 36, in the 1400 block of West Lunt Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

       Hayer, 27, appeared before a Cook County judge on Wednesday as prosecutors asked for no bail during a hearing that was audio-streamed live on YouTube.

       While prosecutors did not detail a motive for the attack, leading up to it, 12 phone calls transpired between Hayer and Pullum, who knew each other, and about an hour before the shooting, the two had been “making fun of one another,” prosecutors said.

       Additionally, a relative of the victim found Hayer’s belongings, including credit cards and a wallet on Pullum’s body, prosecutors said.

       Home security video captured close-up images of the alleged gunman killing Pullum about 7 a.m. that day just after Pullum, two witnesses and couple of other people met up near Lunt and Greenview avenues.

       When a black Jeep pulled up and doubled parked, Hayer, wearing a face mask and a “lot of clothes,” got out and walked over to them.

       Hayer began talking to the group and Pullum and they began “making fun of one another,’’ prosecutors said.

       One of the witnesses recognized Hayer when he pulled down his mask, at one point, showing his face.

       The others left, leaving Pullum, Hayer and two witnesses talking.

       Several minutes later, Pullum and Hayer walked 100 feet west when Hayer “pointed a gun at the back of the victim’s head and pulled the trigger,” prosecutors said.

       Hayer, still holding the gun, ran back to the Jeep and fled while two witnesses remained with Pullum, who was taken to Amita Health St. Francis Hospital in Evanston where he was pronounced dead, prosecutors said.

       Court records from a 2017 felony drug arrest showed he lived a few blocks away, in the 1100 block of Morse Avenue.

       The Sunday morning shooting took place during a violent weekend when several children were shot across the city, and it stood out because it took place in a neighborhood not often hit by gang violence.

       Around July 2020, Pullum’s girlfriend provided a witness with screen shots of Hayer’s Facebook, and the witness told police that the man in the pictures was the person who shot Pullum, prosecutors said.

       Cell site data from Hayer’s phone showed he was in the area at the time of the shooting, prosecutors said.

       In court Wednesday Hayer also faced a charge of trespassing and armed habitual criminal after an unrelated situation that happened Monday, the day of his arrest, in the 500 block of West Iowa Street.

       Hayer, was convicted in 2015 and 2013 of unlawful use of a weapon and in 2012 convicted of carrying or possessing a gun, all of which are felonies, prosecutors said. He was also convicted of three misdemeanor charges of street gang contact

       Hayer, of the 6800 block of South Crandon Avenue, is due back in court Jan. 18.

       rsobol@chicagotribune.com

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