Police1 Staff Report
(CHICAGO) -- The city police department has withdrawn from a federal drug enforcement task force over growing tension after the train station shooting that left one officer wounded and a suspect dead.
The dispute centers on the DEA’s reported delay in allowing the police department to interview an agent.
“All we wanted was an unofficial account of what happened,” a Chicago Sun Times police source said.
A DEA special agent shot two men in Union Station on Dec. 12 after one of them pulled a gun. A Chicago police officer was accidentally shot during the melee.
“We can’t have a situation where we follow one set of rules and our partner agency works on another set of rules,” Thomas Needham, chief of staff for police Supt. Terry Hillard, told the Times. “We have to be on the same page.”
The Police Department withdrew a sergeant and eight officers from the task force Dec. 18, David Bayless, a police spokesman, told the newspaper.
“We have no problem with the shooting itself,” Bayless told the Times. “The DEA agent was a hero. He very likely saved the life of a police officer.”