An 18-year-old man is charged in connection with a Tuesday night shooting that wounded two Chicago police officers in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
Angel Gomez is the alleged driver of the vehicle in which the shooters were riding, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Saturday evening. He is facing two counts of attempted murder.
The attack occurred just after 9 p.m. when someone opened fired on an unmarked police van with an AR-15 assault rifle, according to Guglielmi.
Additional arrests in the case were “imminent” as police know the identities of other suspects, Guglielmi said. More information was expected to be released Sunday morning.
The officers were in plainclothes inside the van at 43rd Street and Ashland Avenue while “conducting a follow-up investigation to a previous incident” that happened near that intersection, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said.
Police believe the van was followed to the location before the shooting.
That’s when at least one vehicle pulled up, and people inside started shooting at the officers, riddling the van with bullets, Johnson said.
One officer was hit in the arm and hip an the other was more seriously injured with a gunshot wound to his back, police said. Both were expected to survive.
After the shooting, a massive manhunt was launched across the South Side and that investigators recovered two guns, police said.
“Make no mistake,” a visibly angered Johnson said Tuesday night at Stroger Hospital where the officers were being treated. “We will find the people responsible for this.”
Contributing:Mitchell Armentrout, Fran Spielman, Mitch Dudek
