By Tina Sfondeles
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Three police officers were injured during an early Monday car chase on the South Side that ended with police fatally shooting one suspect and injuring another.
Just after midnight, officers attempted to curb a vehicle for a traffic violation in the 7900 block of South Stony Island, police said. But the driver of the car accelerated while attempting to flee, police said.
The pursuit ended in the 700 block of 91st when the suspect’s car struck a squad car helping in the pursuit, causing it to catch fire with two officers inside, police said.
The car was stopped, and officers ordered the man and his passenger out, but the driver moved the vehicle again, ramming into another squad car and pinning a third officer who was leaving his vehicle, police said.
As the vehicle continued to move back and forth, officers ''in fear of the lives of the officers on the scene discharged their weapons,’' fatally wounding the offender, police said.
Officers then pulled the driver and his passenger out of the burning vehicle.
Garfield Romale King III, 33, of the 9100 block of S. Emerald, was dead on the scene, officials said.
His family, however, questioned how King was killed.
“He didn’t deserve to be shot down like he was nothing,” said his cousin Margaret Robinson, 43.
His passenger, a 19-year-old woman, also was taken to a local hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound, officials said.
On Monday morning, two officers were treated and released, and one was held for observation.
Two weapons and narcotics were recovered at the scene, police said.
A spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority said IPRA is investigating.
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