A man was killed and a Chicago police officer was wounded in an exchange of gunfire in the South Shore neighborhood Monday.
Four officers had stopped the man on the sidewalk in the 7300 block of South Dante Avenue shortly before noon, according to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling. The man took off running and the officers chased him, he said.
“At which time our officers were fired upon” and returned fire, Snelling said.
The man, between 20 and 30 years old, was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Snelling did not describe his wounds but said three of the pursuing officers had fired their guns.
An officer was shot in the arm and was taken by the other officers to the same hospital. Snelling said the injury was not life-threatening.
Snelling did not say why the man was stopped or provide details of the shooting. He said a gun was recovered at the scene.
“We’re still trying to gather more information right now, but we do know it was an investigatory stop,” the superintendent said. “Until we have a full investigation and all of our officers are properly interviewed, we won’t have all of the details.”
Pressed about the shooting, Snelling told reporters, “There is a lack of respect for law enforcement at this time, and we see it every single day, but there is a lack of respect right now for life in general, and we need to start taking a closer look at the violent actors that we have out here. It's high time we stood up and stood up against these violent offenders.”
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said it responded to the scene.
