Suspected robber fatally shot by off-duty Cook County sheriff’s deputy

A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday afternoon during a suspected robbery at a salon in the South Side Englewood neighborhood.

Two men tried to rob the salon at 1:39 p.m. in the first block of West 69th Street, Chicago Police said.

The female Cook County sheriff’s deputy fired her weapon, fatally striking Rashad Wells Jr. in the chest, according to authorities. The other suspected robber escaped. It was not immediately known if he was also wounded.

Wells lived less than half a mile from where he was shot, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

The sheriff’s deputy was safe and unharmed, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office.

Dozens of onlookers gathered at the corner of 69th Street and Wentworth Avenue in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with police blocking 69th Street between Wentworth and Lafayette avenues as a helicopter circled above.

About an hour after the shooting, detectives spoke with a family member of Wells inside the perimeter of the crime scene tape. The woman leaned against a red Chrysler Sebring as detectives briefly talked with her.