Police Shoot Knife-Wielding Man In Downtown Skokie
SKOKIE, Ill. (STMW) -- A Skokie police officer shot a man in the leg Saturday morning after a confrontation between the man and a business owner, and then later with police in downtown Skokie, Pioneer Press is reporting.
The man was arrested after the incident. The officer who shot the man was a 14-year-veteran of the force who shot the man after he would not stop threatening officers with a knife, police said.
Skokie police were notified by their Evanston colleagues at 9:40 a.m. Saturday that a man had grabbed a woman's wrist on a CTA bus in Evanston. That bus was heading for Skokie, Evanston authorities shared.
Evanston police arrived on the scene of the original incident, and while the victim got off the bus, the suspect continued on, Skokie Sgt. David Pawlak said.
Later, on the 4800 block of Oakton Avenue – the east end of downtown Skokie – the suspect confronted a business owner on the sidewalk, police said. The owner ran back into her business and locked the door, but the suspect attempted to break it down.
Police did not identify the business, but a witness to the event, who wished to remain anonymous, said the incident occurred at the Bughouse Studio.
"He was kicking this window and screaming and talking," the witness said, "but we don't understand what he says."
The witness said the suspect had a Subway sandwich and a Coke in his hand and went to a nearby bus stop and returned, continuing to kick at the door. She said he kicked at the door five to seven times.
"I was going to call 911 and then the police came," the witness said.
While taking down information about the battery incident on the bus, Pawlak said, dispatchers received a call about someone trying to kick in the door of a downtown Skokie business.
"Dispatchers were able to realize that these two descriptions matched," Pawlak said.
When Skokie police arrived at Bughouse, the suspect, described as a 53-year-old white man, took out a knife. The suspect lunged toward the officers with the knife multiple times, police said.
The suspect then headed east along the Oakton Avenue sidewalk, until police confronted the man near Skokie Boulevard.
In an attempt to stop the man, police said, the officers hit the suspect with a baton and used pepper spray, neither of which stopped him.
When the suspect again lunged towards the officers with a knife, one officer shot the suspect, hitting the man in his left leg.
Pawlak said the man was told to drop the knife several times before the shot was fired, but he did not.
The suspect was later identified as the suspect from the Evanston battery and transported to St. Francis Hospital for his injuries. He was listed in stable condition Saturday afternoon.
Pawlak said police recovered the knife. The case is under investigation.
A customary follow-up investigation of the officer's gun use is being conducted by the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and the Skokie Police Department.
Criminal charges against the suspect, which are under review, are likely to be announced within the next day or two, Pawlak said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
