Chicago Police officer pinned by car, suspect shot in Austin

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - A person was shot by Chicago Police after an officer was pinned by a vehicle Wednesday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood.

The incident happened at 11:15 a.m. in the 1600 block of North Leclaire Avenue, according to Chicago Police.

Deputy Chief Al Nagode told reporters that officers were responding to reports of a stolen vehicle driven by “an individual that’s known to them.”

The suspect drove down the alley in the 1600 block of North Leclaire and hit another vehicle driven by a resident.

“The officers, along with another unit, come, get out of the vehicle to approach the individual, giving him verbal commands,” Nagode said. “The individual refuses to listen again, and is using the car to kind of ram the two vehicles in an attempt to escape.”

An officer was then pinned between the resident’s vehicle and his own squad car, Nagode said.

The pinned officer continued to tell the suspect to stop and get out, but he ignored him.

“The officer fires a shot,” Nagode said. “The subject, again, is using his trying to ram the vehicles to get out. The officer, again, fires again. The subject was subsequently taken into custody without further incident.”

The officer suffered “severe damage to his right leg,” Nagode added.

Another officer was struck by a vehicle but is expected to be treated and released Wednesday, he added.

The suspect was shot multiple times and hospitalized in serious but “stable” condition, police said.

If was not know if, aside from the stolen vehicle, if the suspect was armed, Nagode said.

Police cordoned off a block around the alley as investigators worked the scene.

Alana Hall, a mother of seven who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, was home in her garden apartment a half block from the shooting when she heard the gunfire.

She came outside and saw an officer with a bloody leg being loaded into an ambulance. Hall said she knows the more seriously i jured officer and referred to him as “my buddy.”

As she spoke with reporters, a schoolbus dropped off several of her children. She said it was the fourth time in recent years her children have come home to a crime scene outside.

An officer assigned to guard the crime scene tape welcomed the children home, asking them “What’d you guys learn in school today?”

After the children went inside, she said “it’s nerve-wracking” for her kids to come home to crime scenes.

A woman in a passing vehicle who was trying to get home asked reporters what happened. When told that an officer shot someone after he was bit by a car she said “Oh no, we need our cops.”

About 2 p.m., Eric Russell, an outspoken anti-police violence activist, arrived at the scene.