Police shootings are up over 65% this year... we already had more police shooting in Chicago this year than for the whole calendar year of 2010.
Chicago police got into a “gun battle” with a pair of suspects who were “in the process of committing a murder” Friday afternoon in the Chatham neighborhood, Supt. Garry McCarthy said.
No officers were injured in the volley of bullets, and police arrested the suspects after a short chase, he said.
Officers initially responded to 81st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue about 3:30 p.m. after hearing shots fired. They found two victims — one dead, one badly hurt — in a car.
They then spotted two gunmen fleeing in another car, Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety said.
Police chased the suspect until they two got out and fled on foot at 82nd Street and Drexel, Baety said. Shots were fired by officers with “no hits,” and a weapon was recovered, he said.
McCarthy said the chase lasted about three minutes, and ended at 86th and Ingleside.
McCarthy said he didn’t know how many shots were fired in total. “There were shots fired by officers, at officers,” he said.
“The officers engaged in a gun battle ... with at least one of the offenders.”
Responding to a reporter’s question that it seemed like the “Wild West,” McCarthy said: “I’m not going to say it’s the Wild West. I’m going to say these officers did an incredible job in engaging somebody who was in the process of committing a murder, and engaging [the shooter] in a gun battle. ... I’m really proud of these officers stepping up.”
Chatham resident Lisa Leon was sitting in her parked Plymouth Voyager at 82nd and Drexel with a friend when she saw a black van being chased by a police car.
She was reaching for her phone, which she’d dropped, when she heard shots fired, and the windows and door of her minivan were struck. The bullets struck the passenger-side door, which flew open and blew her friend’s hat off.
“I knew they were shooting and I just got down really low, and my friend in the passenger side was right there when a bullet hit the door, grazed his legs and landed on the curb,” Leon said.
“I’m OK but I just really feel lucky right now,” Leon said.
Emergency crews responded to the initial Cottage Grove scene and took a woman in her 20s to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious to critical condition, while a man in his 20s was dead at the scene, Fire Media Affairs Chief Joe Roccasalva said. He was pronounced at 4 p.m. at Jackson Park Medical Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, which did not have an ID as of 5:30 p.m.
Police asked Metra to stop trains moving in and out of the 87th Street station as they searched for suspects about 4 p.m., Metra spokesman Meg Reile said. Train No. 120 was temporarily stopped, but was on the move about 4:30 p.m., she said.
The ace deatectives from ARea 2 are handling this on-going investigation.
