A Chicago police officer shot and killed a gunman who had killed one person and injured another early Friday, in the second fatal shooting involving the city's police in just over 24 hours.
The incident followed an unrelated shooting late Wednesday in which a sergeant responding to a call of a battery in progress on the city's South Side shot and killed a 19-year-old man during a foot chase. Police said the man pointed a gun at the sergeant, but a search failed to uncover a weapon and relatives of the dead teenager are disputing police statements that he was armed.
An autopsy determined he died from a gunshot wound to the back, according to the Cook County medical examiner's daily case ledger, which provided no details. Authorities haven't identified the man, but relatives said it was Kajuan Raye of Dolton.
Raye's cousin, Ahkeya White, said Raye was trying to figure out what he wanted to do and that he'll be greatly missed.
"There was no gun," White told the Chicago Tribune. "Tears are flowing and we are praying."
Raye's mother said she doesn't know if her son was armed. But 38-year-old Karonisha Ramsey told the Chicago Sun-Times if he did have a gun it "should have been right there" when he was fatally shot.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson during a Thanksgiving Day news conference at police headquarters said the department completed a grid search for ballistic evidence or a gun "and the offender's weapon and we were not able to locate a weapon as of yet." Johnson did not take questions.
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In contrast, a weapon was recovered at the scene of the second incident, which began about 12:30 a.m. Friday when officers on patrol witnessed a shooting in the Homan Square neighborhood on Chicago's west side. An injured man was in stable condition at a hospital. No names were released.
In both incidents, officers involved will work on administrative duties for at least 30 days, which is standard practice. The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating both incidents.
Thursday was the anniversary of the release of a video showing a Chicago officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times and protesters held a shopping boycott Friday — the busiest shopping day of the year — on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. A probe of Chicago police practices by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is expected to wrap up in the first months of next year.
