Police shoot 4 after

answering calls of

gunfire

Three people were shot by Chicago police in the Fernwood neighborhood near 105th and Wentworth.

By Peter Nickeas
8:27 a.m. CST, January 1, 2014
Chicago Tribune

The first four people shot in Chicago in the new year were wounded by officers answering calls of shots fired in two South Side neighborhoods, authorities said.

Three of the people were shot shortly before 2 a.m. in the Fernwood neighborhood after officers heard gunfire in the 100 block of West 105th Street, police said.

A 25-year-old man and a 30-year-old man were taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center, and a woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also in critical condition, officials said.

Officers approached the front and back of a home after hearing shots and saw a person on the back porch holding a gun, according to a statement from Police News Affairs. Officers told the person to drop the weapon and he instead raised it toward police, the statement said.

Police opened fire, hitting the person and two others, authorities said. Police recovered a gun from the scene, the statement said.

No officers were injured. Police wouldn't release any other information about the incident Wednesday morning.

Kaniya Clay, 27, said she was walking down the street to check on her car when she gunfire."I was scared to walk back this way,” she said, standing outside a taped-off alley north of 105th Street. “Then I saw police and they were saying someone was shot.”

Police at the scene were confronted by more than a dozen people who yelled at the officers. Police formed a long line, three officers deep in places, and pushed people south on Wentworth Avenue.

Four people were taken into custody but it was unclear if they were charged. They were escorted by officers back under the yellow crime tape.

Police had cleared out by mid-morning, leaving a puppy to romp alone in the snow in the backyard of the small house. The back screen door appeared to be perforated by several holes.

In a brief interview, a young man who answered the door said police "were shooting through my back door like they were at the range."

Just past midnight, a probationary police officer shot a man who raised a gun toward him after he and other officers saw him firing shots near Marquette Road and Rhodes Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood, according to police.

Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Patrick Camden said the man was celebrating New Year's Eve by firing shots even though he was on home monitoring for a conviction for unlawful use of a weapon.

“You gotta wonder, home monitoring for UUW. And he’s out with a gun and police saw him and he’s not gonna drop the gun," Camden said. "Typical New Year’s Eve (stuff)."

Police said the probationary officer, riding with a supervisor, saw the man firing the gun. They chased him and the man pointed a gun toward the officers, police said in a statement. Officers opened fire and the man was hit at least once in the thigh, police said. He was taken in good condition to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

Dozens of officers gathered at the scene moments after the shooting, which occurred a few blocks east of a fire station on Marquette Road.

After the ambulance sped off toward Stroger, all was quiet until a few people walked out of an apartment building and found themselves inside the crime scene.

Officers rushed up and things calmed down after one officer shouted, “I’m giving you an order.”

Officers stretched tape out near the building entrance. Behind them was a mural with the words “Be the change” painted in black letters.

Map: Recent Chicago police-involved shootings