Police officer shoots man in North Lawndale, outraging family members

A Chicago police officer shot a man in North Lawndale Monday morning, police said, sparking an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

According to a statement from the Chicago Police Department, at approximately 11:35 a.m., police officers were traveling in an unmarked squad car when they saw a group of people near a double-parked vehicle in the 2100 block of South St. Louis Avenue.

“Officers then attempted to conduct an investigatory stop when an individual fled from the scene while in possession of a firearm,” the statement said. “Officers pursued the individual into a vacant lot at which time one officer discharged his service weapon, striking the individual.”

The person was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper body. According to police, no officers were injured in the incident and a firearm was recovered at the scene.

Hours after the shooting, the block was taped off and surrounded by a heavy police presence.

Outraged people gathered near the scene, who identified themselves as family members of the man who’d been shot, said police shot their 25-year-old relative. The wounded man was hospitalized in critical condition, but he was expected to survive the bullet wounds, they said.

“He’s stable right now. He’s got a chest tube and everything, but he’s coming through,” his sister Ebony Chapman said.

Police officers had been talking with a woman when they tried to chase the man down to see if he had a gun, his sister Alasehir Muhammad said. Authorities have not identified the man who was shot.

“When they didn’t find anything that instant, they ran, and running they tried to shoot him,” Muhammad said.

The man had lifted his shirt and was turning around to show officers he did not have a weapon when officers shot him, family members said.

Muhammad said officers often check to see if young men in the area have any illegal items on them, even when they “clearly don’t” and are just trying to shop or walk home. Chapman said the officer who allegedly shot her brother is known in the community.

“You know the truth about your officer,” she shouted to police officers standing on the other side of the yellow tape crime scene line.

“This is personal,” Chapman later told the Tribune. “This is not police work.”

According to the police statement, the officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days.

Chapman said her brother, who has a 2-year-old son, is self-employed and has run a janitorial business since 2015. “He’s a great father,” she said.

The shooting comes after police shot and killed a man in Irving Park on Wednesday. Police Superintendent David Brown initially said officers shot that man after “there was an apparent exchange of gunfire” between him and officers both, but COPA investigators said later that it was unclear if the man had fired a gun recovered at the scene of the shooting.

Chicago Tribune’s Adriana Perez contributed.