Three Chicago police officers were shot and injured Monday night in the city’s west side, suffering non-life-threatening injuries during a shootout that killed their attacker, authorities said.
These officers were conducting a drug investigation at about 9:40 p.m. in a building’s courtyard when the shooting took place, said John J. Escalante, the interim police superintendent.
When the officers saw a man and woman going through the courtyard and went to talk to them, the man pulled out a gun “and immediately began firing at the officers,” Escalante told reporters during a briefing early Tuesday morning.
All three officers were hit by gunfire, suffering wounds in the lower portions of their bodies, Escalante said. He said at least one of the officers returned fire, shooting and killing the man who had fired at them; the woman was not struck in the brief firefight and was being interviewed by police after the incident.
Police found a weapon at the scene, Escalante said.
The three officers were all veterans with at least 10 years on the force, Escalante said, and on Monday night they were out as part of a tactical team in the city’s 11th District, which includes Garfield Park and Homan Square. After the shooting, all three were taken to a nearby hospital.
“Every day the dedicated men and women of the Chicago Police Department put themselves in danger so the rest of us can be safe,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel, D, said in a statement. “Tonight we were reminded of the dangers that our police face, and the bravery that they routinely display as three of our officers were shot in the line of duty.”
This shooting came at a tense moment, occurring a day after police in Maryland said a man opened fire at a police station there. Officials said this man fired randomly at officers in an ambush that ended with one officer killed, most likely by friendly fire.
So far this year, the number of police officers fatally killed in shootings is dramatically higher than it was at the same time in 2015. There have been 13 officers killed by gunfire halfway through March, compared to four such deaths a year earlier, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, which tracks officer deaths. Overall, the number of officers who have died in the line of duty so far this year is slightly down from what it was last year, owing to a drop in fatal traffic accidents and other causes.
Two Chicago police officers were injured late Friday in protests outside a canceled rally for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner. One of them was hit in the head with a bottle and needed stitches, Escalante said after that incident.
In Chicago, the police department has been under an increased amount of scrutiny in recent months. The Justice Department is investigating to see if the department — the second-largest local police force in the country — has violated the Constitution in its policing.
Last November, after resisting for months, city officials released video footage showing a Chicago police officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old. This officer was charged with murder the same day the footage was released. This video footage prompted intense protests in Chicago and calls for Emanuel and Anita Alvarez — the prosecutor who ultimately charged the officer with murder more than a year after the shooting — to step down.
After sustained demonstrations, Emanuel reversed course and dismissed Garry F. McCarthy, the city’s former police superintendent, in December. Emanuel also pledged police reforms and, shifting from his earlier position, said he supported a federal probe of the police force.
In his first public remarks since he was ousted, McCarthy said last week he was essentially a fall guy amid the outcry over the McDonald video. Alvarez, meanwhile, is up for reelection Tuesday, and the way she and other local officials handled the McDonald video is a key part of that race for Cook County state’s attorney.
