On both December 10 and 13, 1978, Chicago police were contacted by Allen's common-law wife, Bianca Smith, who complained of having "problems" with Allen, and that he was heavily armed. Officers were both times dispatched to Allen and Smith's residence to deal with the domestic complaints. The second time, Allen was refusing Smith entry to their shared residence, and demonstrated his willingness to continue to do so by brandishing various firearms at police from his front doorstep and telling the officers "the next fucking pig that puts his foot on my property, I'm going to blow his head off" and "you motherfuckers are all going to pay for this."