Shots fired by Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark's security detail after they witness robbery in Old Town
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The security detail for Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark fired shots at the busy intersection of North Avenue and Halsted Street Wednesday afternoon after they witnessed an armed robbery.
At 1:55 p.m., the Harvey mayor was in a black sport-utility vehicle with his executive security detail at the intersection when they saw a man wearing a black ski mask get out of a black Jeep with black tinted windows attempt to hold up a man at gunpoint at a Chicago Transit Authority bus stop. Chicago Police said the robbery victim was 86 years old.
Harvey police said "in an effort to protect the Mayor," the security detail got out of their own vehicle. Harvey police said the masked man "turned towards the detail with his gun pointed," and a security officer fired shots, Harvey police said.
The shots struck the robber's Jeep and blew out its back window of the Jeep. No one was injured, police said.
The robber escaped in the Jeep and have not been seen since.
Sources had earlier indicated that shots were fired at the mayor, but it was later learned this was not correct -- and the robber never fired any shots. All the shots were fired by the mayor's security detail, and while they witnessed an armed robbery, Chicago Police are trying to determine if it was right for them to open fire.
Nearly half a dozen shell casings lined the sidewalk on Halsted Street and North Avenue following the shooting.
Immediately after the incident, sources told CBS 2's Jermont Terry that Mayor Clark was safe, and that the Harvey police command staff came to Chicago after the shooting.
Police cordoned off Halsted Street just south of North Avenue, in front of Design within Reach and Joybird -- which carry an address of 755 W. North Ave. but face Halsted Street. A black sport-utility vehicle was seen within the crime scene perimeter as police interviewed witnesses.
The busy North/Clybourn Red Line stop, the Apple Store Lincoln Park, and Yondorf Hall -- a historic building that houses rehearsal space and offices for the Steppenwolf Theatre and a Fey & Co. jewelry store -- are also located nearby.
A staffer at Fey & Co. said she heard the shots ring out when it happened. She said police and witnesses told her two men in ski masks driving a Jeep tried to rob someone, and what she described as two off-duty suburban officers shot at them.
Chicago Police Area Three detectives are now investigating.
In the incident, several shots were fired in a busy intersection, and the security detail members who fired them were private guards – not sworn police officers. Thus, Chicago Police are trying to determine if the private security officers stepped over the line when they pulled the trigger.
We are told Harvey police are working with the CPD on the investigation.
Neither the man waiting for the bus nor anyone in Clark's detail was injured.