University of Chicago officials Wednesday night released footage of a university officer shooting a student a night earlier near the South Side campus.
The incident stemmed from reports of a burglary Tuesday night in the Hyde Park neighborhood, where university police were called at 10:12 p.m. to the alley between South Kimbark Avenue and South Woodlawn Avenue near 53rd Street, according to Assistant Vice President for Communications Jeremy Manier.
Three officers arrived to find “a young male individual with a long metal pipe, breaking car and apartment windows,” Manier said.
Bodycam footage appears to show the student repeatedly yelling “f— you” before he charges at one of the officers with a long object in his hand.
“Sir, I’m going to need you to drop that weapon. Drop that weapon,” the officer yells as he walks backward for nearly 50 seconds. “Don’t come at me! Don’t come at me!”
When the man was within a few yards, the officer fired one shot, which university officials later said struck the man in the shoulder.
After letting out a scream, the student is heard yelling “f— you all” more than a dozen times before his speech becomes slurred and his breathing heavy.
“I’ll see you in hell, I’ll see you in heaven,” the student is heard saying.
A separate video from a squad car dashcam shows the student wearing a visor over his face and rubber gloves on his hands while holding the pipe.
He was initially taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition but has since been stabilized, officials said. The student’s parents have been contacted about the shooting.
“These videos depict a painful and disturbing incident,” Manier said in a statement.
The officer, who has been on the police force for two years, has been placed on mandatory administrative leave as an “administrative investigation” takes place, officials said. He had been trained on crisis and mental health intervention.
Chicago Police and the University Department of Safety and Security, which oversees the campus police department, are investigating the shooting, officials said.
Charges are pending against the student, a CPD spokesman said.
The campus police department, made up of about 100 officers, is a full-service force with primary jurisdiction on the university’s campus and the surrounding areas from 37th Street to 64th Street, and Cottage Grove Avenue to Lake Shore Drive. State law grants it the same arresting power as a city police department.
