CHICAGO — One of two Chicago police officers who were shot early Friday while in line at Maxwell Street hot dog stand in Lawndale have been released from a hospital, the department said.
Meanwhile, a suspect was being held for the attack and charges have not been announced.
The officers were both taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in fair condition but one of them was released Friday morning, and the other was being held at the hospital, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference Friday.
Just before 3:30 a.m., an officer cried out “10-1! 10-1!” into his radio, signaling an officer emergency.
“I got shot in the head! I got shot in the head!” he said.
The officers were on a break at The Original Maxwell Street, a hot dog and hamburger stand in the 600 block of South Independence Boulevard, Brown said. A man standing in line in front of one of the officers reached into his pocket to pull out money, but a handgun fell out onto the ground, the superintendent said.
The man picked up the gun and “without any warning” shot at the officer standing near him, grazing the officer’s head, Brown said. He then shot three times into the driver’s side of a police car in the parking lot, striking an officer in the leg, Brown said.
“It was really a bang-bang moment,” Brown said. There was no time for the officers to draw their own weapons or turn on body-worn cameras, he said.
A nearby undercover officer heard the shots and pursued the man, Brown said. He and other responding officers caught up with the man a few blocks away and quickly placed him in custody, the superintendent said.
A weapon, which Brown said was “tossed” by the man, was recovered, police said.
Police are investigating, and there is video footage of the shooting, Brown said. No charges were filed as of a news conference Friday morning.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the shooting “a brazen and callous attack.”
The two officers were the third and fourth to be shot at or shot this year, Lightfoot said.
The shooting “underscores that there are way too many people carrying illegal firearms and proves why diligent law enforcement action against illegal firearm possession is essential,” Lightfoot said. Brown did not say during the press conference whether the gun recovered by police was illegal.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said the shooting was “a stark reminder of the dangers [police officers] run into on behalf of our community.”
“Any act of senseless violence cannot be the norm in our city,” Brown said.
