The veteran Chicago Police officer had just parked in front of his Bronzeville home Monday night, and was pulling off his work shoes as he sat in the car, a nightly ritual when he finished his shift.
A man approached and tapped on the passenger window, and the 41-year-old officer glanced at his side-view mirror, where he spied a second man creeping up alongside the car, clutching a long-barreled pistol, prosecutors said Tuesday during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. The officer leaned back in his seat and drew his own pistol from its holster.
The alleged gunman, initially thought to be a juvenile, was later identified as 18-year-old Carlos Hendricks. He pointed his weapon at the off-duty officer, and ordered him out of the car. Hendricks and the officer pulled the door open at the same time, and the officer fired a single shot that struck the teen in the abdomen, Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said.
Hendricks dropped the gun and his phone, and managed to take a few steps away from the car and fell, while the man who had stood by passenger door ran off, Antoinetti said. As neighbors along the 3600 block of South Prairie came out to investigate the commotion, the officer yelled for someone to call police.
When police arrived, Hendricks was slumped on the curb, and the officer was holding Hendricks’ weapon. Hendricks, who did not appear in court Tuesday, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.
Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke ordered Hendricks, who remained at the hospital, held without bond on charges of vehicular hijacking, attempted armed robbery and aggravated assault. The judge called the alleged attack “cold and callous” and noted Hendricks had the “cunning” to give police and paramedics a phony name and birthdate when they first arrived.
The officer, who works in the Harrison District, was placed on administrative duties for 30 days pending an investigation of the shooting by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
