Chicago police officer shot in West Garfield Park

A Chicago Police officer was shot and wounded Wednesday afternoon by a man suspected of killing another person just minutes earlier on the West Side.

The plainclothes officer was working in the 4000 block of West Madison Street shortly before 2:30 p.m. when he saw the man fatally shoot another person on the sidewalk before getting into a white pickup truck, interim CPD Supt. Charlie Beck said.

The 26-year-old man was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the man as Devell Hill.

The officer followed the white pickup, but when the driver realized he was being tailed in the 4100 block of West Wilcox Street, he got out and fired several shots at the officer’s vehicle, striking him once in the wrist, Beck said. The suspect got back in the truck and drove off.

Responding units put the injured officer in another squad car and were on their way to Stroger Hospital when they saw the suspected shooter’s truck.

“While en route to the hospital, the officer and the transporting unit observed the offender in the pickup truck,” Beck said. “The officers driving the transporting vehicle asked the injured officer — who at this point had been shot — did he still want to go directly to the hospital or should they apprehend the offender? He elected that they should apprehend the offender.”

The officers chased the suspect to Congress Parkway and Damen Avenue, just a block north of Stroger Hospital.

The truck crashed and two suspects, a male and a female, were taken into custody soon after, police said. A gun was also recovered from the vehicle.

Beck said the wounded officer has been with the CPD for more than 20 years and is in his early 40s. By late Wednesday afternoon, the officer was “lucid” and his family was with him in his hospital room. A Stroger trauma surgeon said he’s expected to be released by Thursday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters at Stroger, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city owes the wounded officer and the others on his team “a debt of gratitude.”

“Anyone who ever doubts that our officers are courageous or fearless, selfless and run towards danger to serve the public, today is another testament to the fact that they do all of those things every single day.”

Contributing: David Struett, Luke Wilusz

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times