Chicago Police Officer Shot In Chin During Shootout With Suspect Last Week Out Of Medically-Induced Coma
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A veteran Chicago police officer who was shot in his neck and chin during a shootout with a carjacking suspect outside a Northwest Side police station last week is out of a medically-induced coma, but is still not talking, sources said.
Three officers were shot on Thursday outside the Grand Central District police station at 5555 W. Grand Av., when a handcuffed suspect managed to get his hands in front of him, and pull out a gun he had concealed during his arrest.
Two of the wounded officers were treated and released the same day, but a third is still in the hospital. He was originally to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center "very critical" condition, and a source told CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov last week he had to be revived twice on the way to the hospital.
Police have said the officer was shot in the neck, chin, and his protective vest. Fragments from the bullet penetrated the officer's esophagus, and he was placed in a medically-induced coma on Thursday.
Police sources said Tuesday the officer is out of a medically-induced coma, and still has shrapnel in his chin. He is not talking yet, and is writing to communicate. Sources said doctors are not giving him pain medication, so they can track the source of his pain.
Sources also said the wounded officer has been with the force since 2003.
The gunman, 26-year-old Lovelle Jordan, of Maywood, has been charged with six felony counts of attempted murder, one felony count of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, two felony counts of drug possession, one felony count of illegal possession of a weapon by a felon, one felony count of being an armed habitual criminal, and two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, police said. He is being held without bail.
CPD Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said Jordan had been arrested Thursday morning in the Austin neighborhood, and had hidden a gun in his crotch, and used it to open fire on police when they brought him to the station.
Jordan was arrested around 9 a.m. in the 4800 block of West North Avenue, after police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle, and spotted an unoccupied white Porsche that had been stolen in an armed carjacking last month, Deenihan said.
As officers were processing the vehicle, Jordan walked up to the car and got in.
"He walks right up to the Porsche, and he enters the Porsche, trying to drive away," Deenihan said. "It just shows how emboldened these criminals are. The officers are right there, and this guy walks right past the front of the officers' car, and just jumps in this vehicle, trying to start it and drive away while the officers are right there."
Deenihan said the officers immediately jumped out of their squad car, and tried to pull Jordan out of the Porsche. Deenihan said Jordan struggled with police, who handcuffed him behind his back, and took him to the Grand Central District station in a marked SUV with a cage in the back.
When police arrived at the station, and an officer opened the door of the SUV to take Jordan inside, Jordan shot the officer in the chin. The officer fell backwards, and Deenihan said that's when Jordan and other officers outside the station engaged in a shootout.
Sources said, between Jordan and the officers, more than 50 shots were fired.
Deenihan said officers who arrested Jordan did search him, and found money and drugs, but did not find a gun he had hidden on him.
"It appears that the defendant had the gun extremely secreted, probably very close to his private area, and unfortunately he was able to get that gun out while he was being transported, and then shoot this officer in the face right when the officer opens up the car," Deenihan said.
He also denied reports the officers handcuffed Jordan in front, rather than in back.
"These guys, they didn't do anything wrong," Deenihan said.
Deenihan said Jordan had asked officers to handcuff him in front of his body, because of pain from skin grafts on his arms, but they refused.
"They don't handcuff him in front. They're like, 'No way, you're fighting with us,'" Deenihan said. "He's handcuffed in the rear the way he's supposed to be."
Deenihan said Jordan apparently was able to get his hands in front of him while seated in back of the police vehicle.
"It's happened many times in the past, when someone's cuffed in the back, that when they're in a seated position – it's not easy to do – but you can slide your arms underneath your legs, and now you're in the front," he said.
Jordan also was shot several times, and was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. According to the Cook County Sheriff's office, he is still in the hospital. Police have said it's possible he's paralyzed from the waist down.
Two other officers who were at the scene of the shooting were taken to hospitals for chest pains, but were released later the same day.
