Chicago Police Supt. David Brown on Monday praised three officers whose quick thinking saved an off-duty officer who was shot while waiting at a traffic light in the city's Calumet Heights neighborhood.
The unidentified off-duty officer was stopped at a light before 1 p.m. in the 8900 block of South Stony Island when two people came up beside his vehicle and started firing their guns at him, police said. The officer was struck in the stomach, according to authorities.
After receiving ShotSpotter alerts, three female officers responded to the scene. Upon arrival, one of the officers identified the victim as a Fourth District police officer.
The officers then immediately took him in a squad car to the University of Chicago Medical Center, Brown stated.
"When the family arrived here and learned of what happened, just the hugs and tears, mother and grandmother... that they shared with these three women," Brown said during a news briefing at the hospital Monday afternoon.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who along with Brown met with the officer's family, praised the three officers for their actions.
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"Unfortunately this event reminds of the dangers our officers face every single day, whether on or off duty, and we just have to say a prayer for this officer and his family," she said.
The officer, a four-year veteran, was taken into surgery shortly after arriving at the hospital, but was in recovery as of 4:30 p.m.
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Dr. Susan Rowell, a University of Chicago Medicine trauma surgeon, said the officer was listed in fair condition following the procedure and said to be "doing well."
Police said an investigation into what happened was ongoing Monday, but "circumstances suggest several different narratives of what this might be."
The shooting marked the second incident in which a Chicago police officer was shot in just two days.
A Chicago police officer sustained a gunshot wound Sunday afternoon near the 6th District police station in the Gresham neighborhood on the city's South Side, police said.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. the officer, a sergeant, was in a parking lot across the street from the station at 7808 S. Halsted St. when he heard a gunshot and sustained a graze wound to the face.
The injured officer was initially listed in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center and released from the hospital late Sunday night.
