No bond for three charged with shooting CPD officer during chase

A third man has been charged with the shooting of a Chicago Police officer during a chase following the armed robbery of a T-Mobile store Friday afternoon.

Dante Jeffries, 27, faces seven felony charges after he was arrested just after 10:30 p.m. Saturday in the 600 block of West Hubbard, according to Chicago Police.

Jeffries; 20-year-old Donzell Grant, and 24-year-old Cortez Harrington were in the group that allegedly shot the officer in the left leg near 43rd and Ashland during a chase, police said.

On Monday, Grant and Harrington were ordered held without bond at Cook County Jail. On Tuesday, Jeffries was order held without bond.

During their bond hearing, prosecutors said Grant and Jeffries entered the business about 1:30 p.m. and marched four employees to the back of the store at gunpoint, bound them with zip-ties, and demanded the combination to a safe.

Harrington, the getaway driver, waited in a nearby alley, behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger, Bagby said.

After the two armed men burst in, a female customer managed to run out and call police. A store employee who was eating lunch also slipped out a back door and called 911, Bagby said. After the gunmen demanded the safe combination, they emptied out a stash of iPhones inside.

As they headed for the front door with the phones in a sack, they saw two 9th District officers arriving in a marked squad car, Bagby said.

The men ran out the back, then circled from the alley to the front of the strip mall. As they sprinted across Ashland, the two officers gave chase on foot. Both men turned and pointed their guns at the officers, and police believe Jeffries fired first and struck one of the officers in the left knee. The female officer, who has been on the force for two years, fired twice at the fleeing men, and her male partner continued to give chase as they ran south on Marshfield.

The two gunmen reached Harrington’s car and climbed in, then apparently thought better of it, jumping out and sprinting away down a gangway, again stopping to fire at the pursuing officer, Bagby said. The two split up, with the officer still tailing Grant as he sprinted down a gangway and climbed a fence, snagging his pants.

Meanwhile, Jeffries ran down an alley and stole a minivan at gunpoint. The officer, unable to scale the fence, ran down another gangway and spotted the van as it pulled forward, then backed into Grant and pinned him against the door of a garage. As the minivan pulled away, the driver fired at the officer, who recognized that gunman behind the wheel, Bagby said. Grant crawled into the garage, where he was arrested by late-arriving officers.

Harrington was arrested later by police, who found his Charger parked in front of a fire hydrant a few blocks away on Marshfield, after a woman who said she’d almost been run over by the car flagged down officers. Harrington approached officers at his car, and admitted the car was his, Bagby said.

Beside the female officer, no one else was injured in the incident, authorities said. She was treated at Stroger Hospital and released Friday night.

Jeffries, who lives on the Near West Side, faces the following felony charges:

• Two counts of attempted first-degree murder;
• Two counts of armed robbery;
• Aggravated battery;
• Aggravated discharge of a firearm;
• Aggravated vehicular hijacking; and
• Kidnapping while armed with a firearm.

Grant, who lives in the West Englewood neighborhood, and Harrington, of the Park Manor neighborhood, also face seven felony charges:

• Two counts of attempted first-degree murder;
• Armed robbery;
• Aggravated battery;
• Aggravated discharge of a firearm;
• Armed kidnapping; and
• Aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm.

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