Chicago firefighter charged in suspected road rage shooting on city's North Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago firefighter has now been charged in a suspected road rage shooting in the Edgewater-Andersonville area on New Year's Eve.
Omotayo Kassim, 34, is charged with one felony count each of aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated discharge of a firearm from an occupied vehicle, police said.
Kassim was taken into custody right after the incident – he has spent the first two days of the New Year locked up awaiting the charges that came down Tuesday night.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, police and fire crews were both called to Foster Avenue between Ashland Avenue and Paulina Street after the shooting around 7:55 p.m. Sunday. The call was a serious one after an incident on the road quickly escalated into a possible road rage shooting.
"The person in the ambulance is shot in the mouth," an officer said in a radio transmission.
According to a police report, the 35-year-old man who was shot was driving a black Jeep, when he struck Kassim's Chevrolet Tahoe and tried to flee.
Police said Kassim chased the man in the Jeep for several blocks, and rammed his vehicle, causing him to crash into several parked cars. Kassim then got out of his Tahoe, walked up to the victim, and shot him once in the left side of the jaw in the middle of the North Side community.
The victim was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition, while Kassim was taken into police custody on the spot.
Officers on the scene quickly realized Kassim was a fellow Chicago first responder. Police recovered a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun from his waistband holster. It still had nine live rounds in the magazine.
Kassim is a CFD member whose job requires him to save lives. Yet now, he is charged with trying to take a life.
The Fire Department told us Kassim joined them in 2019. Yet CBS 2 has learned that before becoming a Chicago firefighter, a document from 2015 shows he was wanted on an outstanding warrant and was a fugitive from Colorado.
Documents show Kassim was accused of "trespassing in an auto with intent to commit a crime." It is not clear how that case turned out because in 2017, Kassim petitioned the Colorado courts to seal a criminal conviction – which could explain why the CFD did not see the previous out-of-state charges.
Yet now, the charges in Cook County are clear, placing Kassim's career and freedom in jeopardy.
Kassim will step before a judge sometime on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department told us Kassim has been placed on leave with the charges.
It was not clear late Tuesday whether Kassim and the man who was shot knew each other before the incident.
The victim remained in critical condition late Tuesday.