An officer-involved shooting in north suburban Gurnee appears to be connected to an earlier crash and hours-long barricade situation in Antioch, according to police.
The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force said the woman fatally shot by police on Route 41, just north of Grand Avenue, is suspected of being a passenger in the vehicle that struck an Antioch squad car earlier that day.
The series of bizarre events began early Wednesday morning when officers responded to a solicitor complaint in the 40500 block of North Route 83 in Antioch Township and tried to stop a vehicle with a man and a woman inside.
The driver of the vehicle did not stop and eventually struck an Antioch police vehicle, according to authorities. A witness reported he saw "a long-barrel weapon" pointed out of the passenger side window of the vehicle and heard a gunshot, police said.
The vehicle fled the scene at a high rate of speed, but was located a short time later outside a single-family home in the 40500 block of North Route 83 in Antioch Township.
Residents inside the home, which had been divided into several rentable units, were escorted out of the residence, according to police, who surrounded the building and were attempting to communicate with those inside.
Two people of interest -- a man and a woman -- were taken for questioning from the scene, police said.
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An investigation revealed the woman in custody was a third passenger in the vehicle that struck the squad car but the man was not involved and was later released, police said.
The other man and woman in the vehicle were not immediately found.
Hours later, Gurnee police officers responded to a call of a suspicious Toyota Prius with a bullet hole in its side about 1:20 p.m. near Harper Avenue and Gould Street, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Responders found a woman and an unconscious man in the car and called paramedics to help the man, sheriff’s police said. When the paramedics arrived on scene, the woman put the car in gear and drove off, hitting a firetruck in the process. She eventually crashed in Chittenden Park and ran away.
Officers later found the woman standing in the southbound lanes of Route 41, just north of Grand Avenue, sheriff’s police said.
Two officers shot at the woman, who was waving around a long-barrel firearm, according to sheriff’s police. She was struck by the gunfire and later died at Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
Paramedics took the man to a hospital for a medical condition and later released him.
Police said the unconscious man is believed to have been the driver in the Antioch incident. The woman who was shot is believed to have been the passenger.
No charges were filed as of Thursday morning, however.
The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation by the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, per department policy.
An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.
