Chicago Police sergeant’s vest grazed by bullet in West Town shooting

An on-duty Chicago Police sergeant narrowly avoided serious injury in a shooting early Sunday in the West Town neighborhood.

Shortly before midnight, she was traveling north in an unmarked police SUV on Noble Street near Chicago Avenue when a bullet passed through a window and grazed her bulletproof vest, according to police.

A bullet hole could been seen in the windshield of the SUV and at least two others appeared to have struck the tailgate.

Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

Area Central detectives knocked on doors and interviewed multiple people in the block as officers closed Noble Street south of Chicago Avenue. Passersby grouped near the busy intersection to watch investigators work. Others, returning home from a night out, were greeted by yellow and red police tape that prevented them from getting to their front doors.

“What happened?” a woman asked as she tried to get to her apartment in the block. “Was there a shooting or something?”

A man who lives in the area said he heard multiple gunshots, but did not see anything.

A witness was believed to have been parking on Noble when the shots were fired, but left the scene before other officers arrived, according to a police source. Detectives were trying to track down the owner of the vehicle, which had Florida license plates, to interview them.

The officer did not appear to be the target of the shots, which were exchanged between people firing from two vehicles, according to police.

The officer was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition, police said. She was expected to be discharged early Sunday.

Officers recovered an abandoned SUV believed to have been involved in the shooting in the 1800 block of North Springfield Avenue in the Hermosa area, police said. No one was in custody early Sunday.