Off-duty Chicago police officer shot during ‘road rage’ incident in Irving Park East

By CHRIS TYE, JERMONT TERRY

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — An off-duty Chicago police officer was shot in the face during a road rage incident in Irving Park East Tuesday afternoon.

Late Tuesday, the hunt for the shooter remained on.

The incident took place around 3:10 p.m. near the intersection of Addison Street and Elston Avenue, according to CPD Supt. David Brown.

There was a heavy police presence outside the Jiffy Lube at 3630 N. Elston Ave. for hours afterward Tuesday. It wound up being one of four different locations with a massive police presence connected to this same chain of events.

Brown added the 27-year-old female officer was hit in the face but her injuries are non-life-threatening.

The officer was traveling northwest on Elston Avenue when a vehicle traveling in front of her abruptly stopped. The offender then produced a firearm, firing shots from the vehicle, which police said was a black sport-utility vehicle — possibly a GMC Yukon with chrome rims.

The suspect fled, but later, police were attempting to stop a dark-colored vehicle in the 5000 block of West Lawrence Avenue — in Jefferson Park north and west of the original scene. During the encounter, the suspect vehicle struck two CPD squad cars and one officer fired their weapon.

The CPD said no individuals were struck in that incident, and no injuries were reported. The suspect vehicle then fled in the dark-colored vehicle and escaped.

Northeastern Illinois University police later found the unoccupied vehicle in the 5800 block of North Drake Avenue, just east of Peterson Park and North Park Village, and about three miles north of the shooting that started it all.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability announced via Twitter it was “responding” to an “officer-involved shooting near the 5000 block of West Lawrence.”

Brown said police have a potential license plate number, but he declined to release that number talking to news media a little after 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

The off-duty officer was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, which was the fourth site with a major police presence.

“I did talk to the officer, and she is talking. She apparently did not lose consciousness,” Brown said, “so thank goodness.”

Brown said there was no evidence the off-duty officer ever displayed or fired a weapon during the incident.

He added the officer was a probationary police officer, meaning she was newly hired.

Brown expressed his frustration with people using weapons when they are upset.

“We’ve seen gunplay at road rage incidents here, and really everywhere across this country,” he said. “It seems personal conflicts have ended more and more with escalating violence. So it’s a concern of ours.”

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