By Jeremy Gorner and Liam Ford
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — At least one man was in custody after a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent suffered a head injury and a broken leg when he was hit by a suspect’s car in the Ashburn neighborhood Sunday afternoon, police said.
Police were called to the area of 8200 block of South Kedzie Avenue following a report of shots fired about 12:50 p.m., and found that a law-enforcement officer had been injured during a drug investigation when he was hit by a suspect’s vehicle, according to Police News Affairs. A man hit by a vehicle was taken from the area of 8200 South Kedzie Avenue to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious to critical condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Will Knight.
Federal agents and officers assigned to work with the DEA were near 82nd Street and Kedzie Avenue and, acting on information that a driver was transporting cocaine, stopped a vehicle as it entered a gas station there, according to a release from the Chicago Field Division of the DEA. When they tried to arrest the driver, he took off from the gas station, hitting a DEA special agent who was on foot in the area, according to the release and a DEA spokesman.
Shots were fired during the incident, and a suspect was being treated at a hospital, according to the DEA release. The agent was believed to have been the one who fired the shots, according to police.
Following the incident, two people showed up at a local hospital after having been shot, and one of them was identified as the owner of the car used in the attack, police said. That man remained hospitalized but was placed in police custody after being identified as a suspect in the attack, according to police and the DEA.
The agent, who is in his 40s, was intentionally hit by a car and suffered head trauma, but his condition was stabilized at Christ Medical Center, police said, citing preliminary information.
The suspect fled north from the scene of the attack.
Chicago Police and officers and agents from numerous other agencies including the DEA searched the area near 7300 South Oakley Avenue after the suspect abandoned his vehicle and ran from the area.
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