ENGLEWOOD — Police shot and wounded a 20-year-old man who allegedly fired at officers Sunday afternoon in Englewood, touching off a tense confrontation as a crowd gathered at the scene, police said.
About 2:30 p.m., officers responded to a call of a person with a gun in the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue and arrived to find a man in an alley who matched the description, according to a statement from Chicago Police.
When the officers tried to confront the man, he ran off. During a foot chase, the man shot at officers, police said.
Police shot back, hitting the man, according to the police statement. The young man was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in an unknown condition. Supt. David Brown said he is expected to survive.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the man was hit in his shoulder.
Three officers involved in the incident were taken to a nearby hospital for observation, police said.
About an hour after the shooting, a crowd gathered near 56th and May streets while the crime scene was still being processed, according to Area 1 Deputy Chief Yolanda Talley, who talked to reporters near the scene Sunday afternoon. A brick was thrown and shattered the windshield of a police SUV.
Speaking at the tense scene, Talley said the crowd was misinformed and thought the police shot and wounded a child.
“Emotions were running high. They were responding to misinformation,” Talley said.
Talley said a scuffle broke out and one officer was maced by someone in the crowd and a second suffered a minor shoulder injury. The officer who was maced was treated on the scene while the officer with the shoulder injury was taken to a hospital, Talley said.
Two people were arrested and police blocked off nearby streets for a few hours.
Talley said tensions between the community and the police have increased since police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. She implored the community not to rush to judgment.
“This right here is a direct response to one agitator being on the scene, getting people all worked up without having the full story. And the only thing we ask people to do is listen, because we want to hear what they have to say,” Talley said.
Talley was referencing a man at the scene who said he witnessed the shooting and said police confiscated his phone afterward, according to FOX 32.
Police initially said the man shot was in his late teens or early 20s. Police later said he was 20 years old.
The police shooting is currently under investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for a period of 30 days, police said.
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