An 18-year-old man was shot to death by a Chicago Police officer Friday night in the South Shore neighborhood.
About 10:10 p.m., Grand Crossing District officers on patrol near 71st Street and Paxton Avenue heard shots fired and saw a van speeding away from the area, according to a statement from Chicago Police.
A pursuit ensued, and the officers watched someone jump from the vehicle with a gun in his hand, police Deputy Chief Dana Alexander told reporters at the scene.
The officers chased the man — identified as Jeffery Kemp — to 74th Street and Merrill Avenue and ordered him to drop the weapon, but instead he turned around and pointed it at the officers, authorities said. An officer then fired two shots, striking the man.
Kemp, who lived in the 7400 block of South Jeffery, was dead at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police said a gun was recovered at the scene. No officers were injured.
The body could be seen lying on 74th Street between Merrill and Paxton and by about 1:30 a.m., a crowd of roughly 35 people gathered near the crime scene, waiting to see if the man shot was a friend of theirs.
A woman who said between sobs that she could be Kemp’s mother arrived at the scene and broke through police tape. Officers stopped her from running to the body.
The woman, who lives down the street on 74th and Chappel, said she wasn’t sure if it was her son because officers would not let her see the body. She said she came to the scene because she saw a Facebook post about her son being killed.
The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates all police-involved shootings, has been notified, spokesman Larry Merritt said.
Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout
