Chicago Police officers shot a man who allegedly tried to run down an officer with an SUV on Saturday afternoon in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.
The shooting happened in the 300 block of West 115th Street about 2:45 p.m., according to Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority.
Gang enforcement officers pulled over a vehicle as part of a narcotics investigation when the man behind the wheel crashed into a police vehicle and tried to strike an officer with his SUV, according to a Chicago Police statement.
Officers then shot the man, and he was taken to a hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
The officers had been approaching the SUV from the front and back when they heard the car shift into gear, according to Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden. The driver–whose age wasn’t immediately available–put the SUV in reverse before accelerating toward the officers in front of him, Camden said.
“At that point the vehicle is considered a weapon,” Camden said.
Officers shot the man in the shoulder, and his injuries weren’t thought to be life-threatening, Camden said.
The IPRA, which reviews all police-involved shootings, is investigating, Merritt said.
