A double homicide on the Far North Side Saturday evening prompted a pursuit that left one Chicago officer wounded and a suspect in the slayings dead from police gunfire.
Gang crimes officers on surveillance on the 5800 block of North Winthrop Avenue as part of a narcotics-related homicide saw a group of people run from the building, just before a call of "shot fired" came from the location at about 5:30 p.m., police said.
Upon entering the building police found three victims, two dead on the scene and the other in critical condition. As a marked police car attempted to stop the suspects who were fleeing in a vehicle, the suspects rammed the squad car and fired at police, wounding one officer in the leg, according to a police statement.
During a short chase the suspects continued to fire at police before the vehicle was stopped and police returned fire, killing one suspect and taking two others into custody, police said.
The police officer who was shot is 39 and has 12 years on the force, currently assigned to the Gang Investigations Unit, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital of Evanston in good condition.
The officer was shot near the intersection of Broadway and Thorndale Avenue, officials said.
After that shooting, police pursued the vehicle from Broadway and Thorndale to Devon and Greenview Avenues, where the vehicle crashed to a stop, officials said. Police fatally shot one person who had been inside the vehicle, while two people were taken into custody.
Officials from the Cook County medical examiner's office said that a total of three people were pronounced dead as a result of the incidents, all males. The man shot by police was in his 30s, while the two victims from Winthrop Avenue were of unknown age and suffered apparent multiple trauma. Autopsies were pending.
The third person from the Winthrop address was taken in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Witnesses near where a black pickup truck crashed said they saw at least one man being led off in handcuffs, and saw a police officer place a white sheet over another person.
For hours during the investigation traffic was rerouted around the active crime scenes.
About a dozen onlookers gazed from the Red Line stop at Thorndale and Broadway, near the scene of where the officer was shot.
On the ground level, several more stood outside Castle Liquors, a convenience store down the block from the crime scene.
Keenan Morgan was about to leave his home behind Moody's Pub -- a restaurant located across the street from where the shooting happened -- when he heard what sounded like gunfire blasts.
"I heard 'Boom, boom, boom! Pow, pow, pow. It was very unexpected," said Morgan, 23.
At the other roped-off crime scene near Glenwood and Devon Avenues, witnesses said they saw a short chase involving a pickup and several police cars westbound on Devon.
The chase ended with the truck trying to turn south on Greenview Avenue, where shots were fired, witnesses said.
One witness, Chris McGlynn, was at Cunneen's Tavern near where the chase ended.
"I was just sitting here having a beer when I saw a whole bunch of cops chasing somebody in a truck, when I heard what I thought were gunshots," McGlynn said. "It was pretty much a wall of blue lights," he said of the steady stream of police cars.
A bartender at Cunneen's, where one man was taking pictures of the taped-off crime scene with his phone, said she saw a dark-colored pickup speed down Devon around 5:45 p.m.
"It sounded like it had a flat tire, and that's what caught my attention. I thought maybe it was going to careen into our window," she said.
Patrons rushed to the window to see what happened, she said.
"It's scary," she said. "It's scary to have something like this happen so close."
Brittany Rolling was sitting next to her sister at a nearby hair salon when she saw a black pickup barrel down the street. She saw a number of police cars follow behind, then heard at least two gunshots, she said.
She walked a block down to Greenview and pulled out her cell phone to begin recording.
"I don't know who got shot, but I saw police carry a body from the black pickup," she said. "I saw them cover it with something white."
Across the street at Devon Market, workers said the store was full with customers when the chase unfolded outside their window.
One customer was walking out as the gunshots rang out and immediately dropped to the floor, they said.
"I saw (police) handcuff a guy," said employee Samra Ezafic.
Rich Wamsley, who lives a block away from the scene, said he went out for some fresh air and was shocked by the police tape and flashing lights.
"It's pretty crazy," he said. "Wow. It's a scary thing to happen in our own neighborhood."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
