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Men Charged With Trying To Run Over Off-Duty Cop After Shoplifting At Jewel

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two suburban men have been charged with trying to run down an off-duty Chicago police officer after stealing merchandise from a Jewel grocery store in the Oriole Park neighborhood on Wednesday, prompting the officer to shoot out the tires of their car.

Police said 30-year-old Jonathan Koziol and 29-year-old Robert Hack have been charged with one count each of felony aggravated assault to a police officer and one count each of felony retail theft.

An off-duty Chicago Police detective was shopping at the Jewel-Osco at 7342 W. Foster Av. around 7 p.m. Wednesday, when store employees notified her of two men who had filled a basket with food, and walked out without paying. The employees pointed out the shoplifters in the parking lot as they were loading the stolen goods into a red Ford Focus.

The detective approached the suspect, and announced herself as a police officer, and the suspects responded by accelerating the car toward her. She drew her gun and fired at them in fear of her life, shooting out the tires of the car.

Witnesses said the car spun out, and the two men were arrested a short time later.

Both men are convicted felons, police said.

Koziol, of Schiller Park, was sentenced to six years in prison for armed home invasion in July 2004, according to the Sun-Times Media Wire. He also pleaded guilty to retail theft in April 2002 and was sentenced to community service. Hack, of Des Plaines, was sentenced in October 2013 to three years in prison for a robbery conviction.

Both men were due in bond court on Friday.

(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)

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