Wow. Such depravity.

The suspected gunman in the weekend killing of an off-duty Chicago police officer opened fire on “the first Hispanic man” he saw after a petty dispute with a group of Latinos about an hour earlier, said Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who called the shooting a hate crime.

At a news conference Monday, Johnson said the “nightmare” began about 2:25 a.m. Saturday in the River North neighborhood when Menelik Jackson got into a confrontation in the 600 block of North Clark Street with some Hispanic men on a party bus.

Jackson returned later with a gun, but the men were no longer there, Johnson said.

The superintendent told reporters that Jackson opened fire into a parked car about 3:25 a.m. a block from the initial confrontation, fatally shooting off-duty Chicago police Officer John P. Rivera, 23, and critically wounding the officer’s friend, 23.

Jackson, 24, of South Holland, and co-defendant Jovan Battle, 32, of Chicago, were each charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder.