Chicago police officer shot on South Side during traffic stop, suspect also wounded

CHICAGO - A Chicago police officer and male suspect were wounded in an exchange of gunfire Sunday afternoon in West Englewood on the South Side.

The officer was wounded about 2 p.m. in the 6900 block of South Sangamon Avenue during a traffic stop, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said during a news conference.

According to police, three uniformed police officers were riding in an unmarked police vehicle when they attempted a traffic stop. The suspect pulled into a dead end, where he then exited the vehicle and opened fire on the officers, Brown said.

One of the officers was struck twice, in the arm and torso. The officers returned fire and the suspect was struck in the body, police said.

The officer was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious but stable condition, Brown said. The top cop said he spoke to the wounded officer and that doctors said the wounded officer would be ok.

SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 CHICAGO ON YOUTUBE

The suspect was transported by paramedics in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

It is not yet known why the officers were pulling the suspect over.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting. COPA says the officers involved would be placed on routine administrative duties for a period of 30 days.

COPA also said police body-worn camera and third party videos captured the traffic stop and shooting.

"We ask for the city to pray and support their officers," Brown said to reporters outside the University of Chicago Medical Center. "Now is a good time to say thank you when you see an officer because we need encouragement right now doing this very, very difficult and dangerous job."

"Offenders are brazen in harming officers," Brown said later, citing a spike in the number of officers who have been shot or targeted by gunfire.

Brown said there has been a 500% increase in officers shot at and shot this year in Chicago.

On Thursday, a U.S. marshal and his K-9 dog were shot while serving an arrest warrant on the Northwest Side, police said. The suspects weren’t wounded and were arrested at the scene.

A day earlier, another Chicago police officer was seriously wounded in a shooting in West Englewood while trying to stop a car in the 6100 block of South Paulina Street, police said. Her partner jumped into the driver’s seat and drove to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where her condition was stabilized.

In a statement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot referenced the recent shootings that have wounded law enforcement officers and asked, "when is enough, enough?"

"Are we not fed up with the catastrophic consequences of having too many illegal guns readily available to criminals, the mentally ill, and juveniles?" Lightfoot said. "How many times must I, and my fellow mayors across the country, plead with the [U.S.] Senate to take action and end the easy access to illegal guns?

"How many officers and residents must be victims of gun violence before we act?"

Some Englewood residents pressed for information about the shooting and bemoaned the violence, while others goaded the cops and complained they were being blocked from getting home.

Clarence Gunt, a longtime Englewood resident, said he initially mistook the gunshots for firecrackers. Standing on a stoop a few blocks from where the shootout erupted, Gunt said he believes many officers in the neighborhood have disengaged as the violence has worsened.

"You got a lot of police around here," Gunt, 60, told the Sun-Times. "But … half of them are just riding around making a paycheck."

"I mean think about it, who [is] trying to work and get killed?" he later demurred, acknowledging the risks facing officers.

Another resident, 40-year-old Tony Carpenter, questioned the police narrative as he shopped surveillance footage that purportedly captured the shooting. "It looked like the police really just shot him illegally," he said while conceding he didn’t personally witness the shooting.

"It’s the neighborhood. It’s what we face every day: Police harassing Black people."

Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.