Chicago police are trying to piece together a chaotic string of events that ended with a person shot and a three-vehicle crash Friday afternoon on the South Side.
Officers initially responded to a report of shots fired shortly after 4 p.m. near 43rd Street and Wentworth Avenue in the Fuller Park neighborhood, police said.
Investigators believe that a vehicle involved in that shooting fled south on Interstate 94 before exiting the expressway at Garfield Boulevard.
As the fleeing vehicle approached 55th Street, it was involved in a crash with two other vehicles that were driving in the 5400 block of South Wells, police said. Multiple people ran from the fleeing vehicle after the crash.
Chicago Police recover weapons from a vehicle that was taken in a vehicular hijacking from Area North and later involved in a traffic crash in the 5400 block of South Wells. Area Central Detective are currently investigating. pic.twitter.com/AWR6T0xBLf
— Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 5, 2019
Police said two guns, including an assault-style rifle, were recovered from inside the fleeing vehicle, which had been stolen in an earlier carjacking.
Employees of a private security company who were nearby saw them running away and pursued them, according to CPD Sgt. Rocco Alioto.
During the pursuit, shots were fired, but it was not immediately clear by who. At least one of the men running from the crash was believed to have been armed, Alioto said.
A man who was in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant just west of the scene of the crash was struck by a bullet in the right ear in the shooting, Alioto said. He is not believed to have been involved.
Paramedics later found him about a mile away near 54th and Halsted streets and took him to University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment, according to the Chicago Fire Department. His condition had been stabilized.
Detectives continued to investigate and interview witnesses Friday night, police said.
