Man Shot And Killed In Home Invasion At Chicago Police Officer's House
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A home invasion in the Longwood Manor neighborhood turned deadly early Thursday, when a 43-year-old man tried to fight off the intruders, and was shot and killed. In an ironic twist, it happened in the home of a Chicago police officer, although that officer was not the victim.
Police said the suspects entered a home near 97th and Harvard through a side window around 3:45 a.m.
When a 43-year-old man inside the home tried to fight off the suspects, one of them shot him in the chest and the back. The victim was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Seven hours after the attack, officers took down the crime tape around the home and cleared the scene. They escorted loved ones inside the home, all of them too stunned to talk to reporters.
Neighbors said the officer who lives in the home has a husband and two children.
Fellow officers from the Chicago Police Department's 5th District are investigating 11 shootings in less than three weeks, five of them homicides. It's a section of the South Side familiar with crime.
"I live on the main street over here on Wentworth, and sometimes you have people who will actually get out of their car and give us trouble," neighbor Michael Blount said.
But that trouble usually doesn't spill over to the area around 97th and Harvard.
A sign on the street outside the home advertises a block club that promises to keep an eye on crime and riff raff. That said, neighbors said all the flashing lights and police officers on the scene were a shocking sight.
"This is what we woke up to this morning. So what can you say? What can you say?" neighbor Debra Price said. "It's just absolutely sad."
With its trimmed bushes and burglar system, families and seniors who live nearby are usually the ones flooding the streets, not police officers and detectives.
"Children playing, people going about their day," neighbor Debra Price said.
Police didn't say if the home invasion was a targeted attack, or a random crime.
Either way, the unusual homicide at the officer's home, and multiple other shootings under investigation in the surrounding area in recent weeks are keeping neighbors alert.
"I called my wife immediately, and said, 'Look, okay, keep an eye out,'" Blount said.
No one was in custody Thursday morning. Area South detectives were investigating.
Neighbors said intruders broke into another police officer's home on the same street a few years ago.
CBS 2's Mai Martinez and Lauren Victory contributed to this story.