Chicago Police Officer Del Pearson leaves Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn on March 27, 2012, eight days after he was shot in the chest while chasing a suspect on the South Side. (Credit: CBS)
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UPDATED 03/29/12 10:44 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago Police officer nearly killed last week in a shooting has an extra reason for getting better and returning to the street.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, Officer Del Pearson had been trying to get his father’s old Chicago Police star for years, but it had been assigned to someone else.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports
But after Pearson was shot in the chest above his bulletproof vest last week and nearly died, Pearson’s mother told police Supt. Garry McCarthy about her son’s efforts, police confirmed to CBS 2.
McCarthy made it happen, and Pearson received Star No. 6254 days before he left Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. When McCarthy was a New York City police officer, he was given his father’s shield too, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.
Pearson was released from the hospital on Tuesday, with his own police star pinned to a sling on his arm. The surgeon who operated on Pearson said his prognosis is good.
The officer was shot on March 18 in the 8500 block of South Kingston Avenue, as he and his partner were trying to talk with four curfew violators when one of them fled into an alley. When Pearson caught up with the man who ran off, the man shot him twice.
The bullet that struck him in the shoulder severed a main artery and lodged in his neck, near his spine.
Paris Sadler, 20, is now being held without bond on attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting Pearson.
