3 Dead, Officer Shot Chasing Murder Suspects On The North Side

By Anna Deem in News on Feb 27, 2011 6:45PM

On Saturday around 5:30 p.m., police found two people dead with their throats slit and a third critically wounded in a North Side apartment in the 5800 block of North Winthrop Avenue, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said via the Chicago Sun-Times. Several suspects in the murders fled in a black or grey pickup truck and fired at a police squad car that was chasing it, injuring an officer. Police shot and killed the suspect, Weis said, and the other two men were taken into custody. The stabbing victims remain unidentified Sunday morning.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified the suspect as 37-year-old Arturo Ibarra, of the 4500 block of South Troy Street. He was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the head at 6:23 p.m. at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston. The murders were possibly part of a series of drug-related killings over the past several months, police said.

The injured officer, a 12-year police veteran, was shot in the leg and was also treated at Saint Francis Hospital. "The officer is going to be fine," Weis said to the Sun-Times. "It's a stark reminder of the dangers our men and women face." According to a CTA rider alert, two CTA bus routes--the No. 36 Broadway and No. 151 Sheridan--were rerouted due to the shooting in both directions near Devon and Greenview and Broadway and Thorndale.