Cops Fatally Shoot Man During Domestic Disturbance
Updated 08/03/11 - 9:53 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Police say an officer shot and killed a man Wednesday afternoon on the West Side after two officers had been injured in a fight with the man.
It was a call about a domestic disturbance that brought police to the 300 block of North Latrobe Avenue around 1:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Pat Camden, spokesman for Fraternal Order of Police, said an officer and a sergeant responded to the call and the sergeant was trying to handcuff a man involved in the disturbance.
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"Gets one handcuff on his wrist and at this point the offender becomes violent, starts fighting with the sergeant, hitting him about the head and face, eventually knocking him to the ground. He is now on top of the sergeant," Camden said.
Camden said the officer tried to help the sergeant by spraying mace, but it had no effect.
"He starts fighting with the sergeant," Camden said. "The female officer attempted to subdue the offender with Mace, but it did not have an effect on the offender -- only on the two police officers."
The sergeant was about to lose consciousness and told the female officer: "Shoot him, shoot him," Camden said. "She did not because of the proximity between the sergeant and the offender. The sergeant realizes that if he blacks out, the offender will get his weapon so he shot the offender once."
The suspect – identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 35-year-old Claude A. Ellis – was pronounced dead at 2:23 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The sergeant was taken to the hospital for bruises to his head and shoulders, and for exposure to the pepper spray. The female officer also was taken to the hospital for injuries from pepper spray.
"Anytime the police are responding to a situation, there is a weapon on the scene -- meaning the officer's own weapon," Camden said.
Camden said he does not know whether a knife was recovered from the crime scene.
The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the shooting by police.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
