A parolee was ordered held without bail Wednesday for allegedly opening fire on a marked Chicago police SUV after the four officers inside the vehicle tried to take him into custody in Bronzeville earlier this week.
The officers were trying to take 22-year-old Steven McGee into custody Monday for a recent aggravated assault in the neighborhood when McGee shot at them, Cook County prosecutors said.
Police said one officer was shot in the knee by McGee, but prosecutors Wednesday said surveillance video called into question whether McGee was the shooter.
When the officers, who knew McGee from a prior arrest, pulled up to him in the 5300 block of South King Drive Monday evening, and called out “Lil Steve,” he ran away, prosecutors said.
As the officers pursued McGee in the marked SUV and asked him “where he was going to run,” they saw him remove a black handgun from his waistband, prosecutors said.
McGee turned toward the police vehicle as he ran and fired multiple shots, striking the SUV, prosecutors said.
The officers called in a report of shots fired and got out of the vehicle as they continued to hear gunfire.
One officer heard a gunshot and “immediately felt something on his right leg,” but McGee had already turned a corner and “could not have shot” the officer, video surveillance showed, prosecutors said.
The officers initially tried chasing McGee on foot, but the officer who “felt something” called off the pursuit “due to pain in his right leg,” prosecutors said. The officers did not return fire.
Chicago police confirmed Wednesday the officer suffered a gunshot wound to his knee at some point during the incident.
McGee also fired multiple times into the front door of an apartment building in the 5000 block of King Drive to gain access to the building, prosecutors said, adding that it was believed these were the gunshots the officer heard when he believed he was shot in his leg.
McGee eventually got inside an apartment on the third floor, locked the door behind him and told the two people inside not to open the door when police knocked, prosecutors said. McGee allegedly changed clothes inside a bathroom, placed his old clothes and gun in a black garbage bag and threw it out a window. The items were later recovered by police.
The two witnesses in the apartment opened a back door to the home and alerted police.
SWAT officers later ordered McGee to surrender and was taken into custody.
In addition to the attempted murder charges, McGee was charged with unauthorized use of a weapon and aggravated discharge of a weapon in an occupied building, as well as a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to a residence.
McGee is currently on parole for a 2016 armed robbery conviction, according to court records.
An assistant public defender Wednesday stressed that prosecutors said surveillance footage showed the officer who thought he was wounded could not have been shot by McGee.
“We don’t know if there’s a third person with a gun somewhere, and in the climate of Chicago these days, there very well could be someone else shooting,” the attorney said.
Another man, 21-year-old Jacari McNutt-Garrett, who was seen armed and fleeing from police with McGee during part of pursuit, faces a misdemeanor count of possession of ammunition without a valid FOID, prosecutors and police said.
McGee is expected back in court on July 6.
