By Angela Rozas
The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Chicago Police Cmdr. Al Wysinger was sitting on the front porch of a family member’s West Side home Saturday, his day off, enjoying his grandmother’s 80th birthday party, when he spotted a man down the street raising a gun.
Pop. Pop. Pop. The man fired two or three times down West Ferdinand Street at somebody Wysinger couldn’t see. Someone fired back nine or ten times. A bullet struck a 40-year-old woman standing in a gangway near the party, Wysinger said.
The man with the gun then started running south on North Leclaire Avenue.
“I jumped down from the porch and yelled, ‘Police! Freeze!’” Wysinger, 44, recalled Monday. The man turned toward him and fired one shot, Wysinger said. Wysinger grabbed his gun from his holster, returned fire and chased the man down the street.
The man shot again, then tripped. The man fell again, and Wysinger apprehended him.
Wysinger, a commander at the Austin District for the last two years, credited weekly Friday night beat walks instituted by Supt. Philip Cline with helping him stay fresh.
The neighbor who was shot in the leg was treated at a local hospital and released, he said.
Augueste Burton, 26, an alleged gang member who lives in the 500 block of North Leamington Avenue, was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, authorities said.
Copyright 2007 Chicago Tribune Company