By Sam Charles
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Newly released video footage shows the tense moments immediately before and after a Chicago police officer was shot in the hand by a fellow officer in the Englewood neighborhood earlier this summer.
Chicago Police Department officers were called to the 300 block of West 56th Place around 7:30 p.m. on July 24 after neighbors saw a group of young men trespassing on a nearby property, officials previously said. When they arrived, one man tried to drive away in a black BMW sedan.
Video footage released Wednesday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability shows officers repeatedly ordering the man to stop the car, but he continued to drive as several officers tried to open the door.
One officer, with his gun drawn and aimed at the BMW’s driver, yelled for his fellow officers to “watch for the crossfire” before firing three shots in the direction of the driver. Bodycam footage appears to show that the officer’s first shot struck another CPD officer — one trying to open the car’s door — in his left hand.
The driver of the BMW was able to get away, and officers on the scene quickly called for a “10-1,” a police emergency, to report shots fired by officers.
In the video, the bullet appeared to strike the wounded officer’s middle and ring fingers. After he was shot, the wounded officer crouched to the ground and saw blood streaming from his hand. Another officer soon applied a tourniquet.
“I just got shot,” the wounded officer said before adding, “I didn’t shoot.”
The officer was soon taken to UChicago Medicine, but not before several neighbors started hurling insults at the officer who shot his colleague.
“Look at his stupid a—,” one man loudly said to several other neighbors who were outside. “Get your dumb a— out of here.”
Two officers fired their weapons at the BMW driver, and COPA previously said there was no evidence of anyone else shooting a gun during the incident.
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