Police Fatally Shoot Man In Gresham
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Officers fatally shot an armed man who reportedly was using a female as a hostage in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side early Sunday.
At approximately 12:40 a.m. Gresham District tactical officers responded to a "man with a gun" call in the 8000 block of South Ashland Avenue, according to a statement from police. When they got to the scene officers encountered a large crowd, where they saw the offender struggling with another person.
The officers intervened and observed the man with a handgun in his waistband. A struggle ensued between the officers and the man, during which the man pointed the weapon in the officers' direction.
An officer then shot the man, who was fatally wounded, the statement said.
Andrea Stoutenborough, a spokeswoman for the Independent Police Review Authority -- which investigates all police-involved shootings -- said a weapon was recovered.
No officers were injured during the incident.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified the person shot and killed as Niko Husband, 19, of an unidentified address. Pronouncement information was not immediately available Sunday morning.
Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said the shooting happened outside a social club at 8004 S. Ashland Ave. As officers went to investigate a report of a male with a gun they saw a group of people coming out of the social club -- one of them a male with his arm around the neck of a female. The man was using her as a shield, according to Camden.
Officers intervened and shot the male and as they attempted to pull the woman away from him when they saw the male reaching for a gun in his waistband as he went to the ground, according to Camden, who did not have information on the condition of the female.
Unconfirmed dispatch reports indicated another person involved in the incident was shocked with a stun gun.
The shooting is the second police-involved fatal shooting in the city in the span of about eight hours. About 4:30 p.m. Saturday police fatally shot a 32-year-old man in an exchange of gunfire at Madison Street and Parkside Avenue on the West Side.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
