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Off-duty Chicago LEO shot in head after suspect opens fire at car

Chicago police released an image of the car the suspect was riding in during the shooting

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Jeremy Gorner and Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — It was the veteran Chicago cop’s dream come true when his son was assigned to the same police district on the South Side.

But early Wednesday, the now-retired father’s worst nightmare came to pass as he raced to his son’s hospital bed. The 25-year-old officer was fighting to survive a gunshot to his head during an off-duty incident not far from police headquarters.

“He is shaken but strong for his family,” William Bradley, deputy chief of the department’s Bureau of Organized Crime, said of the father, a former colleague. “He is leaning on his faith to bring (his son) along.”

The son was shot just after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday inside his SUV after someone drove up behind him and his girlfriend and opened fire in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

Some 20 shell casings were recovered at the scene of the shooting in the 200 block of East 37th Street.

Hours later at the nearby police headquarters, an emotional police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the wounded officer had shown some response, giving a thumbs-up while undergoing treatment at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

“This incident has a significant impact on me personally,” said Johnson, who worked with the father and whose son, also a cop, works with the wounded officer. “This tragic event reminds us that CPD officers are not immune to the gun violence that affects our city. Officers live in Chicago. We send our children to school here. We play in the parks near our homes, and we eat in the restaurants in our neighborhoods. Chicago police officers are part of the fabric of this city.”

Officials did not identify the wounded officer by name but said he has been with the department for two years.

Johnson left to visit the officer. A police spokesman later said the officer had undergone surgery but was still able to squeeze Johnson’s hand and blink at him.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also went to the hospital to wish the officer well.

“As his parents, friends and co-workers hold vigil at his bedside, we must find the will as a community to say enough is enough,” Lightfoot said in a statement issued later. ”We must come together to stem the gun violence that too many residents and neighborhoods know all too well.”

Bradley commanded the Gresham District — also known as the 6th — when both father and son worked together. Bradley said the elder officer, who retired last October, wanted his son assigned to Gresham because it was the kind of place where older officers provided support and leadership for younger colleagues.

“He kept telling me his son is coming on (the department), and he wanted him to come to 6,” Bradley told the Tribune. “He knew the culture.”

Bradley said the father worked the day shift in the district’s intelligence center that analyzes data and decides where to deploy officers to combat the violence, while his son worked evenings on patrol.

“He is a very quiet, humble kid,” Bradley said. "... A good teammate, always listened to direction. We built an instant connection. I looked at him as a son.”

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Police had no one in custody Wednesday evening for the shooting.

At the morning news conference, Johnson said detectives were reviewing video footage that captured part of the incident.

Police said the officer had gotten off work about an hour earlier and was parked on 37th Street in his SUV when he and his girlfriend noticed a black four-door Toyota or Nissan circling the block.

The officer pulled out to leave the area, but the suspicious vehicle followed behind him. An occupant in the black car opened fire, blasting out the SUV’s back window and striking the officer in the back of the head, police said. The officer did not fire his weapon, according to Johnson.

The SUV crashed into a stop sign and a wrought iron fence.

The girlfriend, who was not injured, had just called 911 before the gunfire erupted, reporting the suspicious vehicle, police said.

Unofficial recordings of the 911 call capture a woman screaming.

Wentworth District officers working nearby heard the crash and responded immediately.

“The passenger, she saw the vehicle, they were following them on this block and the next thing you know they started shooting at them,” an unofficial police radio transmission quoted an officer on the scene as reporting.

In his remarks, Johnson also addressed Chicago’s ongoing gun violence, offering prayers to anyone in the city who has suffered from it. He also expressed frustration about how hard it is to stop gun offenders from carrying and using firearms. In addition, he talked about the challenges of the criminal justice system providing strong deterrents and combating the root causes of gun violence such as lack of economic opportunity and education.

“You want to know what keeps me up at night?” the superintendent said. “These are the things that keep me up at night.”

The wounded officer is the second assigned to Gresham District to be shot this year, though both incidents took place while the officers were off duty and not in the district. Officer John P. Rivera was was shot and killed in the River North neighborhood after a night out with friends.

Late Wednesday, Chicago police released an image of the car the suspect was riding in during the shooting. It’s described as possibly a dark, newer, four-door Toyota Camry with tinted windows, and it was last seen heading south on Michigan Avenue from 37th Street, the alert stated.

https://twitter.com/Chicago_Police/status/1144199427005067264

The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation also announced it’s offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects in the shooting.

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