Chicago police SWAT officer shot during standoff after woman shot in Albany Park

A Chicago police SWAT officer was shot in the stomach while responding to a hostage situation after a woman was shot and critically injured Monday morning in the Albany Park neighborhood.

Chicago Police Interim Supt. Fred Waller said shortly before 11 a.m., officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 4600 block of North Springfield Avenue.

When officers arrived, they found a 67-year-old woman who had been shot and was critically wounded. Officers administered first aid and secured the scene, and learned a man was inside a home holding another woman and a teenage girl hostage. Waller said the woman being held hostage might be the gunman's girlfriend.

After securing the area and calling in a SWAT team, officers tried to breach the door of the home, and the gunman fired shots through the door, hitting a SWAT officer in the abdomen.

Both the wounded SWAT officer and the woman who had been shot were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Waller said the woman was in critical condition. The officer underwent surgery and was expected to recover.

Shortly after the alert went out over police radio that the officer had been shot, there were more calls for help as a man who had barricaded himself inside a home with a woman and a 13-year-old threatened them with a gun, according to police dispatch reports. A woman begged the man barricading himself in the home not to shoot through the window and to turn off the gas.

"She's crying and yelling for him to turn off the gas. He's turned on the gas," a dispatcher said. "It says she was begging again to turn the gas off. She thanked him for turning the gas off. I'm assuming he's cut off the gas now."

Meantime, officers continued to negotiate with the gunman, who later released the two hostages, both of whom had been beaten, according to Waller. Around 1:15 p.m., the gunman surrendered to police and was taken into custody. His arrest was captured by a neighbor's cell phone camera.

Waller said police believe the woman who was shot is the mother of one of the two people taken hostage, and that the teen is the daughter of one of the women involved in the incident. Both the woman and the teen who were held hostage were taken to Stroger Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

"We are incredibly grateful for the swift and accurate work of our Police Department. This is yet another reminder of how hard this department works on behalf of the people of Chicago," Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "It is unfortunate that domestic violence exists in the way that it does in this city, but we are grateful that our Police Department, as well as our SWAT team in particular, that they were able to de-escalate the situation and prevent further harm."

According to a police source, the wounded officer is 45 years old and has been an officer for 20 years. Waller said he has been on the SWAT team for 12 to 14 years.

Waller said police are looking into the gunman's background and whether he was involved in any past domestic incidents. 

Neighbors said the couple who live in the home have fought before, but nothing like this. 

One neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said police told her to get into their house because of how dangerous the situation was. 

"I got nervous because I've got my kid, he's eight, and I just told him to keep away himself from the windows," she said. 

"Just hoping that I make it here, just making sure I get here to the boys as fast as I can," said Anna Machado.

Machado was relieved to reunite with her boys after leaving them with family who just happened to live across the street from where this happened.

"They were just letting me know that the kids were safe but that there was a lot of stuff going on outside and my kids were worried," she said.  

Charges are pending as of Monday night.