Agent fatally shoots suspect during drug bust in Austin: DEA

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent shot and killed a man who allegedly ran him down with a vehicle during a drug bust Saturday morning in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

About 8:45 a.m., agents investigating a “multiple-kilogram cocaine distribution point” saw an exchange of packages and tried to pull over one of the vehicles involved in the handoff, but 43-year-old Gus Tousis drove off, according to a DEA spokeswoman and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Agents activated their lights and sirens and again tried to stop the vehicle on Central Avenue near Interstate 290, where Tousis turned his vehicle and struck one of the agents, authorities said.

The agent then shot Tousis, who died despite medical assistance given at the scene, authorities said. He lived in west suburban Bartlett.

The agent was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, authorities said.

A “significant amount of cocaine” was found in Tousis’s vehicle, authorities said.

The DEA and Chicago police are investigating.