Police ID Man From Loop Shooting
By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Aug 28, 2009 2:00PM
The man shot dead by police during the incident in the Loop yesterday afternoon has been identified as 45-year-old Jacob Paul Stolarz. After yesterday's flurry of unconfirmed reports, here's what we now know:
- Officers were called to the Loop near Randolph and Wabash because of reports of a man with a knife.
- Police tried to get the man to drop the knife as they followed him down Randolph, even using pepper spray, which failed to subdue him.
- The man then grabbed a nearby elderly man and threatened him.
- An office tried to disarm the man of his knife.
- Another police officer opened fire on the man, striking him and accidentally striking the officer who was attempting to disarm the knife-wielding man.
- Stolarz was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting and the injured cop was last reported in good condition as his bulletproof vest prevented serious injury.
- A second officer was treated for inhaling some of the discharged pepper spray.
CPD superintendent Jody Weis said, "He was trying to murder an innocent elderly gentleman. With that escalation of force, our officers were forced to engage him, and we used deadly force." Stolarz had been arrested on a few minor charges, including smoking on a CTA train, over the past few years, but nothing major. Weis added, "Police work isn't clean. Sometimes there are shots fired in close proximities. The officers are well-trained, they're very close on one another. It's unfortunate that one officer was shot in the vest. He's fine." [Tribune, Sun-Times, CBS 2]