Boy, 17, shot to death by police on Southwest Side identified

A 17-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Chicago Police officer Monday night on the Southwest Side has been identified.

Laquan McDonald of the 500 block of North Springfield was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

A squad car’s slashed tire near a fatal police-involved shooting in Archer Heights late Monday. / photo from Network Video Productions

An autopsy Tuesday found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.

About 9:45 p.m. Monday, Chicago Lawn District officers received a call about a person breaking into cars in the 4100 block of South Karlov, according to a statement from Chicago Police.

Officers found the 17-year-old “with a strange gaze about him” carrying a knife which he refused to drop when police ordered him to do so, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said.

The teen used the knife to puncture the front passenger-side tire of a squad car and damage its front windshield before leading officers on a foot chase, police said.

Other officers used a squad car to try and box the boy in against a fence near 41st and Pulaski, Camden said. An officer shot him in the chest when he “refused to comply with orders to drop the knife and continued to approach the officers,” police said.

No officers were injured, and a knife was recovered, officials said.

The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating.