CHICAGO (CBS/CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) ― A Chicago Police officer is hospitalized serious condition after a car struck the officer and a person he was interviewing in the Rush-Division nightlife district — prompting police to fire shots at the suspect.
The suspect fled, but was apprehended early Tuesday in the incident.
The incident began about 3:10 a.m. when a Mercedes was driving past 10 W. Elm St., where a police officer was conducting a traffic stop and either searching or interviewing a citizen outside, according to a police.
The Mercedes then struck the officer — and the person the officer was searching — and is believed to have dragged one of the two for a short distance. This prompted the officer’s partner to fire shots at the car, according to police.
The injured officer was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition, according to police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.
No one was hit by the police gunfire, Gaines said.
The Mercedes fled the scene northbound but the suspect who was driving it — and who police were shooting at — was eventually apprehended at Division and Dearborn streets.
Fire Media Affairs Chief Kevin MacGregor said crews responded, and one person has been transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
MacGregor could not say what condition the person was in and he did not know if the injured person was a police officer.
MacGregor said there was another ambulance called to an address nearby but they did not transport a second person anyone.
Two pre-war luxury apartment high-rises are located on the block of Elm Street where the original incident happened. On the ground floors of the high-rises — Elm Street Liquors at 10 W. Elm St. and the Hangge-Uppe at 14 W. Elm St. The Hangge-Uppe is open until 4 a.m.
A person who answered the phone at the Hangge-Uppe said the staff at the nightclub “can’t talk about it” about 3:30 a.m.
As of about 4:15 a.m., police had set up a crime scene and blocked off Division Street from Clark Street east to State Street. Crime scene tape also blocked off Elm Street, from near the front door of the Hangge-Uppe east to the intersection with State Street.
There was also a crime scene set up at Clark Street and LaSalle Drive about half a mile north, but it is not known whether this was related to the incident or for something else altogether.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
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