Dec 5, 2008 12:01 pm US/Central
Police Officer Shot In Logan Square
Officers Return Fire, Wound Suspect
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
A Chicago Police officer was shot and wounded late Thursday on the city's Northwest Side.
CBS
A Chicago Police officer is in the hospital after being shot overnight in the Logan Square neighborhood, and police are expecting charges against the suspect in the case.
Officers returned fire on the suspect.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, a man with a gun confronted officers around 10:10 p.m. Thursday night near Belden and Kedzie avenues.
The incident began when responding plainclothes tactical officers in an unmarked car saw the shooter walking on the street and stopped to talk with him because he had been identified as an alleged gang member, according to Shakespeare District police Capt. Marc Buslik.
"Before they [police] even got out of the car, he came up, he walked up to the car and pointed [the weapon] at them,'' Buslik said. As an officer exited the car, the suspect fired, striking him just over his bulletproof vest.
He then began running away and the officers gave chase. When police caught up with him at Fullerton and Sawyer avenues, he turned around and again fired. At that point at least one officer shot at the suspect, striking him, police said. The officers took the suspect into custody a short time later at the Sawyer address.
Area residents came out to see what was going on.
"I heard a couple gunshots, came out through the alley, and I saw right away; I heard all the squad cars and the sirens everything, so I came outside, walked to the corner of Sawyer and Fullerton, saw them put somebody in an ambulance, you know, I wasn't sure who it was," said witness William Jedlink. "I came on over here to this corner, and you know, I guess the car behind me – the one I'm hearing – is an unmarked squad car, and one of the officers got shot in the shoulder."
As of late Friday morning, the Cook County State's Attorney's office had received a hand-written statement from the shooter, 18, according to Buslik.
The officer was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, the Fire Department said. The officer is 32 and has been working for the Chicago Police for 6 years, according to police.
The gunman was also taken to Illinois Masonic in an unidentified condition, the statement said. A source said the gunman, a male, was shot in the knee.
A gun was recovered near the residential street where the shooting happened, according to Mark Payne, spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates all police-involved shootings. Nobody else was injured, he said.
The IPRA canvassed the neighborhood Friday morning looking for witnesses, Payne said.
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Celebrity Watcher: Real Or Fake?
Click to enlarge
Military Loan Program Expanding In Illinois 44 mins ago
Davis To Run For Reelection In Congress 54 mins ago
Stumble It!
