Body Cam Video Shows What Led Up To Shooting Of Man By Cook County Sheriff's Police On Southwest Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man who was shot and wounded by Cook County Sheriff's police this week was armed, and officers had to use a Taser to subdue him even after he had been shot, authorities said.
As CBS 2's Steven Graves reported, the Cook County Sheriff's office worked quickly to release a 30-second video of the incident, only 19 hours after it happened.
Just before 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, a sheriff's police officer was on patrol in unincorporated Cook County near Stickney, where Cook County Sheriff's police are the primary police agency. The officer saw a vehicle with no front license plate and illegally tinted windows speeding down the street, according to the Sheriff's office.
The officer pulled the car over, and the driver briefly stopped and opened his door. He first refused the officer's command to exit the car, and then drove off, the Sheriff's office said.
The officer saw the man turn into an alley and get out of the car with something in his hand, the Sheriff's office said.
The officer followed the man in his police vehicle and ordered him to stop. The officer saw the man drop a black cellphone as he kept running, the Sheriff's office said.
The pursuit later crossed into the Chicago city limits. The officer kept following the man in his police vehicle and then went after him on foot in the 4600 block of South Laramie Avenue.
The man kept running, and a second officer responded and tried to approach the man from the opposite direction, the Sheriff's office said.
The man approached the second sheriff's officer and came within several feet of him. The man reached into his bag and pulled out a gun, the Sheriff's office said.
The first sheriff's officer then fired multiple shots, wounding the man in the shoulder and buttocks.
In the body cam video, the suspect's face is blurred as he runs and an officer tells him to stop. Soon after that the Sheriff's officer fired four shots.
The man is then seen lying in the ground after being struck by the officer's gunfire, but he then sits back up and flails his arms up and back to the ground. The video ends at that point.
Paramedics were requested right away, the Sheriff's office said. Meanwhile, the man kept resisting even after being shot – at one point standing up and running onto the front step of a house, the Sheriff's office said.
The first officer was now pointing a Taser at the man, and the officers repeatedly told him to come down from the porch, the Sheriff's office said. Additional sheriff's officers and Chicago Police officer arrived at the scene.
The man walked off the porch, but then tried to run past the officers again, the Sheriff's office said. Officers tried to subdue him, but he resisted their efforts to restrain him until the officer who had shot him earlier discharged his Taser, the Sheriff's office said.
Officers then restrained and handcuffed the man. A silver and black handgun and two bags of crack cocaine were recovered, the Sheriff's office said.
The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was in good condition.
The man has three previous felony convictions. He was sentenced in 2018 to four years in prison for repeatedly kicking a Berwyn police officer who tried to get him to stop swallowing a baggie of crack cocaine, and he is still on parole from that sentence, the Sheriff's office said.
Also in 2018, the man was sentenced to two years in prison for an unrelated drug conviction.
In 2010, the man pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and got four years in prison for aggravated robbery. In that incident, the victim was with a locksmith trying to get into his car that had been previously stolen in a carjacking when the man walked up to the victim and said, "You know what time it is. Don't make me shoot you. Give me what you got." The victim gave up his wallet and cellphone, the Sheriff's office said.
Chicago Police are investigating the incident involving Sheriff's police on Wednesday night.
