Chicago police: Officer fatally shot man armed with knife in Englewood

Chicago police said an officer fatally shot a man Sunday morning while responding to a domestic disturbance in Englewood on the South Side.

Officers responded to the 6500 block of South Harvard Avenue about 10:55 a.m. and encountered Turell Brown, 28, armed with a knife, police said. An officer shot Brown and he was later pronounced dead.

A statement from police did not say exactly where the shooting occurred. Crime scene tape cordoned off Harvard between 65th and 66th streets as detectives and evidence technicians gathered near the scene for hours. No markers for shell casings were visible from outside the taped-off area, near a small apartment building.

Jennifer Fulton and other neighbors said the area is generally peaceful but there have been problems at that building, including a SWAT response to a domestic disturbance two years ago.

Fulton and another neighbor, Eddie Clemons, said police responded to the building in August 2019 and streets were closed for blocks. A man with a knife told officers through a window he would not come out. A SWAT team negotiated with him for several hours and he was taken into custody and brought to a hospital for an evaluation, police said.

No one was hurt, but the incident remained fresh on the minds of neighbors. “They always have problems,” Fulton said. “It needs to be shut down. … It’s chaos.”

Still, Clemons said news of the police shooting was shocking. “It’s right up the street that my kids go to. This is a school right here,” he said, pointing to the Academy of St. Benedict just steps from the apartment building.

A neighbor on the block complained to Ald. Jeanette Taylor about the building, Fulton said. Taylor declined to comment Sunday, responding to a voicemail message with a text saying she had the flu.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the independent agency charged with probing police shootings, urged anyone with information about the shooting to call (312) 746-3609.

The officer involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days, according to the police statement.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney