By Mitch Dudek and Tina Sfondeles
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Chicago Police fatally shot a man Wednesday afternoon who allegedly attacked a male officer in the Austin neighborhood, officials said.
Claude Ellis, 35, was shot during a struggle with police at his home in the 300 block of North Latrobe, police said.
Ellis had become combative when an officer attempted to interview him, repeatedly striking the officer in the face, according to police spokesman Maureen Biggane.
Another officer also was injured during the struggle. Both officers received non-life threatening injuries, Biggane said.
The officers had come to the home following a report of a domestic disturbance.
A relative of Ellis who did not want to be identified, said Ellis lived in the basement of the two-family flat and had confronted an aunt about money that was missing before police arrived.
“Someone called the police and they came and tried to calm him down, but I heard he had a knife, and one thing led to the next and they got to wrestling and he got shot,” the relative said.
Police union spokesman Pat Camden said a male sergeant and a female officer responded to the call and a fight ensued as the sergeant tried to handcuff the man.
Meanwhile, said Camden, “the female officer attempted to subdue the offender with Mace, but it did not have an effect on the offender, only the two police officers.”
The sergeant was about to lose consciousness and told the female officer: “Shoot him! Shoot him! . . . She did not because of the proximity between the sergeant and the offender,” Camden said. “The sergeant realizes that if he passes out, the offender will get his weapon. So he shot the offender once,” said Camden.
Ellis has five previous felony convictions for drug offenses, according to court records. He was also convicted of a 1998 home invasion in which he climbed to the third-floor window of his ex-girlfriend’s South Side apartment with a revolver and, after observing her in the bedroom with another man, forced his way inside. Ellis fought with the woman and bit off a portion of her ear, records state.
A police officer is tended to after being injured during a confrontation on the 300 block of North Latrobe on Wednesday.
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