CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
Police shot and wounded a man late Sunday night in the West Side Austin neighborhood.
The police-involved shooting happened in the 200 block of North Lockwood Avenue at 11:20 p.m. when officers from the Violence Initiative Team patrolling the area tried to interview three males, according to a statement from police News Affairs.
As the officers got out of the car, the males took off running and the officers gave chase, the statement said.
As the pursuit went on, one of the suspects turned toward an officer and pulled an object from his waistband. The officers ordered the suspect to drop the object, but he refused, according to the statement. One of the officers then shot him.
The suspect was arrested and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said. No officers were injured, and the other two males escaped.
According to Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden, officers in a "violence reduction" squad car saw four people standing in an alley near Fulton Street and Lockwood Avenue and stopped to find out what they were up to.
As the officers got out of the car, two of the four took off running, Camden said. The officers, who also numbered four, gave chase but eventually lost the two.
They continued to look through alleys and backyards, according to Camden.
One of the officers jumped a fence into a backyard, at which point a man armed with a tire iron jumped out of the bushes and accosted him, Camden said. The officer fired a shot, hitting the man in the arm.
The man, 18, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Camden, who added that no officers were injured.
Area North Detectives and the Independent Police Review Authority is investigating.
