Chicago police officer released from U of C after being shot
CHICAGO - A Chicago police officer who was shot and wounded in Englewood last week is being released from the hospital Sunday.
The officer, Erik Moreno, was supposed to be discharged last week, however, due to feeling lightheaded, the hospital kept him longer.
Officer Moreno was shot at about 2 p.m. on June 5 in the 6900 block of South Sangamon.
According to police, three uniformed police officers were riding in an unmarked police vehicle when they attempted a traffic stop. The suspect, 27-year-old Jermone Halsey, pulled into a dead end, where he then exited the vehicle and opened fire on the officers, Chicago Police Supt. Brown said.
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Officer Moreno was struck in the arm and torso. The officers returned fire and the suspect was struck in the body, police said.
Moreno was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious but stable condition.
Prosecutors said the officers had seen Halsey driving erratically before the stop. One of the officers could also tell Halsey’s brake lights weren’t working properly when he looked in the squad car’s side mirror as Halsey’s car drove past on 71st Street shortly before 2 p.m.
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The officers made a U-turn and followed Halsey as he occasionally drove "at a high rate of speed" and eventually turned into the dead end alley on Sangamon, prosecutors said. The officers allegedly pulled behind him when he tried to back out.
The officers got out of their car "with their weapons unholstered" because of Halsey’s driving, prosecutors said. A bag containing several extended magazines was found in his car, they said.
Halsey faces charges of attempted murder of a police officer and aggravated battery.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.