An unarmed 13-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured by Chicago police after police stopped a car wanted for car theft in Oak Park a day earlier, according to law enforcement sources.
The boy was shot dead around 10:15 pm on Wednesday after he jumped out of the car and started fleeing in block 800 of North Cicero in Austin, according to a police statement. The statement did not give details of the clash, but a source said police were not shot and no weapons were found.
The boy was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical but stable condition, according to firefighter spokesman Larry Merritt. The boy is 13 years old, according to a statement from the Civil Police Accountability Service.
The driver fled in a wanted car, which was later found abandoned in block 3800 on West Monroe Street, about two miles near Garfield Park, police said.
The car was used in a car theft the day before in Oak Park, according to authorities in the western suburbs. A man with a black face mask stole a car left to work with a 3-year-old child inside near Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, police said.
The child was found unharmed about 15 minutes later in the car that was abandoned in block 200 on Madison Street, police said.
The thief was seen driving a gray-gray Honda from 2008, which was spotted by Chicago police on Wednesday night. The police stopped him and the boy came out and started running, police said. Authorities have revealed little details about what happened next or what threat the boy posed.
According to radio traffic, a police helicopter picked up the car as it headed south on Independence Boulevard. In the next few minutes, the helicopter pilot and the dispatcher repeatedly asked if police officers on the ground were chasing the car they thought was wanted for car theft and kidnapping in Oak Park.
“Is anyone behind this car?” Can we get closer to him? ”Says one dispatcher.
She also asks if there is a sergeant to oversee the pursuit. A sergeant checks the air around the time the wanted car stops on Cicero near Chicago Avenue.
There is some confusion, as 10-1 is called for an officer in need of help. The dispatcher first says “shots against the police”, but then says “shots fired by the police” as officers chase a suspect who got out of the car.
A police statement issued hours later did not mention shots fired at police, and a law enforcement source said investigators did not mention any shootings.
Asked for comment, a spokesman for the mayor referred reporters to the COPA and the Chicago Police Department “for any details” about the incident.
As is routine, the only officer who opened fire will be placed on administrative duty for 30 days, COPA said.
The video from the police body camera of the shooting was handed over to COPA, as well as video from the police surveillance camera POD and a third-party camera, the agency said in a statement. But because the shooting involved a minor, COPA said it was illegal to make the video public under city policy, which requires most videos to be released within 60 days.
The shooting came just over a year after a Chicago police officer shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo while fleeing police in the Little Village and dropped a gun behind a fence seconds before a police officer confronted him.
The Cook County Attorney’s Office decided in March that no criminal charges would be filed against the police officer who opened fire.
In the case of Toledo, the family allowed COPA to release a public video of the body camera shooting.
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