A man who allegedly shot a Chicago police officer during a gunfight after a crash-and-grab crew burglarized a Gold Coast store early Monday has a lengthy criminal record and is wanted by federal authorities, the Sun-Times has learned.
Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling told reporters that someone initially tried to drive a Dodge Durango into the Prada store at 30 E. Oak St. about 4:15 a.m.
The gunman tried to flee the scene and exchanged gunfire with responding officers when he was told to drop his weapon, Snelling said.
The officer was shot in the leg and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with injuries that weren’t thought to be life-threatening. Ald. Brian Hopkins said he was released by early Monday afternoon.
The 33-year-old suspect was struck multiple times and was taken to the same hospital in serious to critical condition, according to Snelling and Chicago Fire Department Chief Walter Schroeder. He remained sedated after undergoing surgery, according to a law enforcement source.
He was found with two handguns with extended magazines, including one that was found while officers were trying to render aid to him, according to a police report. That gun was equipped with a so-called switch that effectively turned it into a machine gun.
Police are seeking to charge the suspect with a list of felonies, including two counts of attempted murder, according to a police report. He is also wanted on a warrant issued by the U.S. Marshals in a gun case, the source said.
The suspect has a long history of arrests that dates back to at least 2007, according to Cook County court records. That includes a 2008 felony conviction for burglary, but charges have been dropped in most of the 15 cases brought against him.
The police report notes the suspect was an “active participant” in the Prada burglary and was seen entering the store and removing “numerous items” before the gunfight.
At least four vehicles were used in the burglary, one of which was later discovered on the West Side, according to the source. One of them was previously used in another armed robbery case that remains under investigation, another source said.
No arrests have been reported. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is also investigating the shooting.
The Prada store was previously hit by a group of robbers over the summer, according to CBS 2, making off with thousands of dollars in merchandise on a Sunday afternoon.
The same block was rocked by another high-profile shooting on Aug. 4, 2020, when rapper FBG Duck was killed and two other people were wounded in an attack that federal prosecutors have linked to a lengthy gang war. That was the only other shooting in the first block of East Oak Street since at least 2010, according to city records.
‘No one told us an officer was shot’
The first call about the burglary came shortly after 4:15 a.m., but it took nearly eight more minutes for officers to report that burglars had “smashed into the Prada store” and a cop had been struck by gunfire, according to audio archived by CrimeIsDown.com.
As other calls began rolling in, officers and dispatchers sometimes tripped over each other on the radio. An ambulance was summoned around 4:18 a.m. after an officer on the scene reported that someone was injured.
But a dispatcher was told no cops were hit.
After spending roughly four minutes talking to cops tracking a getaway vehicle, the dispatcher came over the radio and said an ambulance was still en route to the shooting scene.
Around 4:24 a.m., the dispatcher asked again if any officers had been hurt. Cops quickly reported that another officer had been shot and was treated with a tourniquet, although the dispatcher apparently couldn’t hear the response.
“Do we have an officer shot?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes,” an officer responded. “Oh my God.”
“First of all, no one told us an officer was shot,” the dispatcher snapped back. “We had already asked you guys.”
No one had come over police radio and reported a “10-1,” a code for an officer in distress that typically sends officers speeding to help.
Last May, it took Chicago police more than 30 minutes to find Officer Aréanah Preston after she was fatally wounded during a robbery outside her Avalon Park home.
The officer who was wounded Monday joined the police department in 2006 and is assigned to the Near North District, according to state law enforcement records and a police spokesperson.
‘It’s a different city, I just don’t get it’
Kim Hendricks says she has lived in the same building for 32 years and has never seen anything like what happened Monday morning.
She woke up to the sound of gunshots and looked out her window to see squad cars and an ambulance filling the street.
“It’s a different world. It’s a different city, I just don’t get it,” Hendricks said. “It seems like after the summer of 2020, that’s when things went downhill. I’ve heard a police officer say these kids got brazen, and I guess that’s what it is because I’ve been here a long time and I’ve never seen it like this.”
A meeting to discuss increasing security measures in the area already had been scheduled for Monday. James Cooper, who recently moved back to the city, said waking up to the sound of gunshots was concerning, but it doesn’t make him feel unsafe. However, his parents have recently started taking precautions.
“It happens rare enough that it’s not terrible,” Cooper said. “My parents are definitely more cautious now ... because they don’t feel 100% safe in this neighborhood, which is crazy because it’s downtown.
“It’s just gotten out of hand,” he said. “They’re crashing cars into store windows.”
