Off-Duty Cop Shot A Man During Altercation In Albany Park
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jan 16, 2017 6:55PM
4500 North Kedzie Avenue, via Google Street View
An off-duty police officer shot a man in the head after he and his companions got into a verbal confrontation in Albany Park Sunday evening and someone in the man's car opened fire on the group, according to a police report of events.
The officer was walking with "several acquaintances," in the 4500 block of North Kedzie Avenue around 7:30 p.m., according to authorities, when a group of people in a car pulled up and "instigated a verbal confrontation" with them. The driver reportedly pulled in a nearby parking lot and turned around so that the car could re-engage with the off-duty sergeant and his friends. Then, someone in the car pulled out a gun and opened fire at the group. The sergeant pulled out his own gun and returned fire at the car, and at that point the car and its occupants fled the scene.
The sergeant and his friends were not hit by the gunfire, but they later learned that one of the people in the car that shot at them was hit in the head by a bullet. According to authorities, later Sunday evening the police department learned that a man had checked himself into Swedish Covenant Hospital with a gunshot wound to his head. The man was suspected to be one of the people involved in the shooting on Kedzie Avenue, so police officers searched the area around the hospital, found a gun, and determined that the wounded man was indeed involved in the shooting—though it's unclear from the police report of events how this was determined.
The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the incident and the off-duty sergeant's use of force, and the sergeant will be placed on desk duty for 30 days per department protocol.