A man shot by a Chicago cop in North Lawndale this week was running toward the officer and holding a gun after he fled from a street stop, the city’s police oversight agency said Wednesday.
The shooting happened about 11:35 a.m. Monday in the 2100 block of South St. Louis Avenue when two patrolling officers spotted a double-parked car and people standing around it, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Javontay Kindred ran off when one of the officers hopped out of their unmarked squad car, COPA said.
The officer chased Kindred on foot west through a park, south down an alley and east through a vacant lot before heading back toward St. Louis Avenue, COPA said. The second officer ran south and saw Kindred, 25, approaching through the lot while gripping a handgun.
That officer fired a single shot that struck Kindred in the chest, COPA said. Police said he was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.
Ebony Chapman, who identified herself as Kindred’s sister, claimed to reporters Monday that he was unarmed and was trying to surrender when he was shot. She said he was alert and talking after the shooting.
The shooting happened so close to Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts, 2128 S. St. Louis Ave., that members of the administration “heard shots fired in the vicinity of the school,” principal Zarree Walker wrote to parents.
No officers were injured, police said. The two cops involved were placed on routine administrative duties for at least 30 days pursuant to department policy.
COPA said the “initial interaction” and the shooting were captured in body-worn camera footage that will be made public within 60 days, in accordance with the city’s video release policy.
On Tuesday night, police announced that Kindred had been charged with felony counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Kindred was ordered held on $750,000 bail during his initial court hearing Wednesday, according to Cook County court records. He will be placed on electronic monitoring if he can post bond.
Kindred has a significant criminal record that includes convictions for aggravated robbery, theft and aggravated battery of a government employee, court records show. In the latter case, he pleaded guilty to battering a youth development specialist at the Cook County Juvenile Justice and Detention Center.
Less than a week earlier, Isidro Valverde, 21, was shot and killed by police during another foot pursuit near an Irving Park bar early on Feb. 8, officials said.
Police Supt. David Brown and COPA officials both reported that a gun was recovered. Brown initially said the shooting happened during an “apparent exchange of gunfire,” but COPA later said it was “unclear … if the individual discharged his weapon at police.”
The two shootings happened months after the police department unveiled a permanent — and controversial — foot pursuit policy.
The monitoring team overseeing the police department’s compliance with a court order mandating sweeping reforms had recommended adopting such a policy before 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 21-year-old Anthony Alvarez were killed in separate foot chases over a three-day span in March 2021.
Alvarez was struck in the back while holding a gun in Portage Park. Toledo was shot in the chest after dropping a firearm and raising his hands in an alley in Little Village, less than a mile from where Monday’s shooting happened.
