Chicago police exchange gunfire with suspect in East Garfield Park; no one hit

Chicago police officers conducting a drug investigation returned fire Friday morning after they were shot at in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.

No one was hit, and the alleged shooter escaped from the area, according to Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern. The shooting happened about 7:40 a.m. in the 700 block of North Trumbull Avenue.

“Officers were conducting an investigation in that block, and they began to take fire from someone nearby on the street,” Ahern said. Officers returned fire but didn’t hit the suspect, he said. There were multiple rounds fired in the exchange.

A person of interest who was not the shooter was taken in for questioning, Ahern said. Another suspect is still being sought. A SWAT team responded to the scene as a precaution while officers searched the area for the shooter.

Ahern said the investigation into the shooting is in its early stages. He was unable to confirm if the suspect was a target of the investigation or if the officers were in uniform.

The shooting occurred in an area of the West Side that has for years been a hotbed of narcotics activity.

Chicago Police Deputy Chief Ernest Cato said the shooting was “a testimony [to] what goes on here nonstop when someone has the tenacity to fire down a street at individuals.”

“I don’t think anyone in this neighborhood feels safe until we come to a solution by bringing multiple organizations and community [members] and police and everyone together,” Cato added.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the officers’ use of force, according to COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy.

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