CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago police officer fatally shot an armed suspect early Wednesday after the man drew his weapon while officers were chasing him, authorities said.
The officers were chasing the man at around 12:15 a.m. when he “produced a handgun which led to a confrontation with police,” the police department said in a statement.
An officer drew his own weapon and fired at the man, hitting him. The man was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he died, police said. Police didn’t immediately release the man’s name or age, say why the officers had started chasing him or say whether the man fired on the officers after he allegedly drew a gun.
A weapon was recovered at the scene of the shooting, which happened in the Portage Park neighborhood, police said. A department spokesman, Tom Ahern, posted a photo of the purported weapon on social media but released few other details.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability will investigate the shooting and will have the police department’s full cooperation, police said. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days.
The shooting marks the third time in less than a week in which Chicago police have fatally shot an armed suspect. On Monday, an officer in the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s West Side shot and killed a man during what police described as an “armed confrontation.” And last Thursday, police killed a suspected shoplifter at a Home Depot on the city’s southwest side after he shot an officer and a security guard.
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