Video shows retired Chicago cop open fire after carjacker threatens his neighbor

CHICAGO - Ring video from Chicago's West Side shows a 78-year-old retired police officer run outside and exchange gunfire with a carjacker who he said was threatening his neighbor.

"I hollered to my neighbor to duck," said the retired officer, who did not want to be identified. "When I hollered 'duck', the guy looked over at me. He shot one round. After he shot one round, we started firing at each other. He had an automatic, and we emptied our guns at each other."

The retired officer suffered a minor gunshot wound to the finger. He served in Desert Storm and on the Chicago Police Department for 30 years, which is experience he said came in handy when he heard the commotion at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday in the 300 block of North Mayfield in the city's Austin neighborhood.

"All 30 years," he said. "I knew how to position myself, take aim and handle the situation."

"Thirty years, forty years on the job and he's still got it. He's a hero," said the carjacking victim, Terrell, who wasn't injured.

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The shots left bullet holes in the retired officer's car, home and fence.

"It was a very terrifying, scary feeling, just to wake up in the morning and start your morning with somebody pointing a gun at you. It's tough," said Terrell.

While the retired officer says he intervened out of fear for his neighbor’s life and based on his experience, he said that doesn’t mean the public should do the same.

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"I don't advise anyone to get involved with a carjacking. Leave it alone. But at that time, I felt I needed to help my neighbor out because I thought he was going to get killed and that's the only reason I came out and confronted the carjacker. I didn't want anything to happen to my neighbor," he said.

The carjacker drove off in the victim's jeep, crashed it a few blocks away, and then fled. Police recovered a gun at the scene of the shooting.

No one was in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.