Off-duty Chicago police officer exchanges gunfire with armed group on Chicago's Southwest Side
An off-duty Chicago Police officer was injured in a shootout in the West Lawn neighborhood early Monday morning.
Neighbors said the officer was trying to stop a group of men from breaking into cars. Those men remained on the run late Monday.
At 4:18 a.m., the Chicago Police Department said multiple armed people approached the off-duty officer in the 3700 block of West 67th Place. Police said at that point, "an exchange of gunfire ensued."
Multiple cars were damaged along 67th Place, with gunshots through the windows and glass on the car floors.
Audio from police radio suggests that the officer used his weapon, and that the suspects were also armed.
It was not clear who shot first — only that the off-duty officer somehow suffered a minor injury before the men fled.
One neighbor, whose car was also broken into, said the men left on foot toward a getaway car waiting nearby. The getaway car was described as a dark sedan.
"He did the right thing," a neighbor said, "and he should know that the majority of the neighborhood here is behind him, so he shouldn't have to worry about anything."
The neighbor, who asked that his name be withheld, also woke up to a broken window in his pickup truck.
"I noticed that some stuff probably wasn't in the car anymore," he said.
He said the suspects took his backpack, which police later found nearby.
"[Police said], it's probably down the street, you know, give us some time, we're going to process DNA and all that, and then you can come and grab it," the neighbor said.
The neighbor said his community no longer feels safe.
"This neighborhood itself used to be a very peaceful neighborhood. You wouldn't hear about stuff like this. I think the majority of the city, you could have said that, maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago," the neighbor said, "and just — people don't feel safe here anymore."
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is looking into the case, as police continue to look for the people who fled the scene.
The officer involved in the incident will be placed on routine administrative leave for 30 days, as per standard protocol for any officer involved in a shooting or incident were shots are fired.
About a year ago, just about 10 minutes away from the incident early Monday, Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca was shot and killed as he was returning home from his shift while still in uniform in the 5500 block of South Kedzie Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood.
Police said Huesca was targeted in a carjacking. He was two days away from his 31st birthday at the time.
Thankfully, again, the officer wounded in the early Monday morning incident will make a full recovery.
