Chicago Police Officer Shot In Bronzeville
Updated 07/31/11 - 6:09 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago police officer was shot Sunday afternoon in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.
At about 2:30 p.m., paramedics responded to a shooting at 150 W. 43rd St., where they found a Chicago police officer had been shot, according to a Fire Department spokesperson.
The 43-year-old officer was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition with a graze wound.
One high-ranking officer told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine that the officer was "better than you and me."
The injured officer told police that he exchanged shots with several men. It was unknown if any of those suspects were hit.
Police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said the officer had received a tip about criminal activity at 80th and LaSalle Streets. He followed the suspects in his personal car as they took the Dan Ryan Expressway north to 47th Street, where they exited the expressway.
After getting off the expressway, one of the suspects shot the officer, hitting him in the side, according to Ursitti. The officer fired back and might have continued chasing the suspects briefly after he was shot.
He was picked up at 43rd and LaSalle and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with a graze wound.
Sources said that five suspects fled the scene of the shooting in a car that might have bullet holes in it. Police have spent the afternoon searching for that car at various locations on the South Side.
Sources also said the suspects might have been involved in another shooting earlier in the day.
None of the suspects was in custody as of early Sunday evening.
No further information on what led to the shooting was immediately available.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
