Man Shot Dead By Police After Going For Gun During Arrest
UPDATED 03/26/12 11:26 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Many questions are cropping up following a rash of shootings involving Chicago Police officers, the most recent of which happened late Sunday night.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, there have been at least five police-involved shootings in the past week alone.
Most recently, around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, two Ogden District officers were responding to a theft in progress call at an abandoned building at 1520 S. Kostner Ave. in the North Lawndale neighborhood.
Inside the building, police say as one officer was preparing to handcuff the man, he felt a handgun in his waistband.
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At that moment, the man allegedly grabbed the gun. The two struggled until the officer was able to pull away, and apparently, both officers fired their guns at the man.
It is unclear where on his body the man was hit, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident is the latest in a difficult week for police officers, said Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden.
"It's been a busy week, There's been a number of police involved shootings with a number of weapons recovered from offender's who insist to carry weapons and either point them at police, or attempt to gain control of a weapon when an officer is in the process of patting them down," Camden said.
Last Thursday night, investigators say police tried to question two men who were carrying guns near 105th and Green streets in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
Police say one of them pointed a shotgun at them, so an officer shot him. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Dwayne Hatcher, 20, of Danville, has since been charged with aggravated assault on an officer with a firearm and unlawful use of a firearm by a felon, in connection to the incident. Daniel Davis, 20, of the 10300 block of South Wallace Street, is also facing weapons charges.
This past Wednesday, an off-duty detective was allegedly trying to quiet a crowd as he drove through the North Lawndale neighborhood, when someone pulled a gun on him. The detective pulled out his gun and fired shots.
A 22-year-old woman was shot in the head and a 39-year-old man was shot in the hand.
The man, Antonio Cross, has been charged with assault in the incident, while the woman, Rebia Boyd, later died of her injuries.
One day earlier, Officer Del Pearson, 47, was shot in the chest while trying to stop possible curfew violators in the 8400 block of South Kingston Avenue. Pearson survived his wound, but lost nearly two thirds of his blood.
"Again, police work is a pretty dangerous job, as we see on a routine basis," Sadler said.
FOP President Mike Shields also released a statement about the rash of police shootings.
"The city's reaction is we need better technology, but crux of this all is that we are short-staffed in the Police Department, and the city is in complete denial," Shields said in the statement. "Officers are being put in harm's way."
The city and the Police Department have not issued an official response.
The Independent Police Review Authority and detectives are investigating the latest incident.
