Two Chicago police officers exchanged gunfire with a suspect, leading to all three being shot and hospitalized Friday, according to city officials.
The officers, identified by Chicago Sun-Times sources as Carl Williams, 27, and Esteban Cervantes, 30, were described as having non-life-threatening injuries. They have been Chicago cops for four years.
Officers stopped “some type of homemade” vehicle around 5 p.m. in the 2000 block of East 79th Street in South Shore when the person fled, and officers gave chase, police Supt. Larry Snelling told reporters Friday night outside the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The officers caught up to the man and, during a struggle, the man pulled a gun from a bag and shot Williams in his vest, Snelling said. Williams fired several shots, hitting the suspect several times, accoding to Snelling. Cervantes also was hit, though Snelling said the shooting is under investigation on whether it was friendly fire. Cervantes was shot in an arm, officials said.
Cervantes underwent successful surgery, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson. Williams was injured but didn’t have surgery as the vest caught the bullet, Snelling said.
The suspect was in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial, Snelling said.
“Thank God for his vest,” Snelling said of Willliams. “You never know when a stop will turn deadly.”
The two officers will be placed on routine administrative duties for a minimum of 30 days.
Dozens of officers and more than a dozen police vehicles lined East 79th Street just east of South Jeffery Boulevard by 6 p.m. A city of Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigator and least one federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent also were present.
A police mobile command center at one point was moved onto South Chappell Avenue, closer to where evidence technicians carried markers into an alley behind an abandoned convenience store, where the shooting appeared to have happened.
At the news briefing outside University of Chicago Medical Center, Snelling and Johnson also addressed anticipated holiday weekend violence, in which so far three people were shot in two shooting events as of 5 p.m. Friday, excluding the police-involved shooting.
“These officers are sons, brothers and public servants,” Johnson said. They “made sure a potential danger did not meet community. … As Chicagoans, we have to look out for one another as we go into this holiday season.”
Johnson pointed to a number of city-sponsored activities for kids being held late into the night to keep them off the street as part of the city’s safety plan. He said it was key in keeping Memorial Day violence down. That weekend saw two deaths and 38 injured, continuing a downswing in holiday weekend violence after Chicago had its fewest homicides since 1965 last year.
But Snelling said much of the violence comes amid groups at gatherings for holiday weekends that “can’t resolve conflict without violence.”
“We have to be better as people, we have to stop resolving issues with deadly violence,” Snelling said. “Lives are being lost. … We should not allow our skin, our gender, our language or our uniforms to be a barrier for communication. Everyone should want some sense of peace.”
