Chicago Police officer shoots man holding woman at gunpoint in home invasion

A Chicago Police officer shot a man who in turn shot a woman he was holding at gunpoint Wednesday evening during a West Town home invasion.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a call for a well-being check at a garden apartment in the 2000 block of Washington Boulevard, according to CPD Sgt. Rocco Alioto. When the officers arrived, they learned there was a possible home invasion. When they went to the front door, they heard a gunshot and broke in.

Once inside, officers saw a 19-year-old man holding a 23-year-old woman at gunpoint, Alioto said. When the man started dragging the woman into another room, an officer shot him in the abdomen. At some point during the struggle, the man shot the woman in the arm.

Paramedics took both the man and woman to Stroger Hospital, the Chicago Fire Department said. Both were expected to survive. An officer was taken to Rush University Medical Center, but police and fire officials said the officer wasn’t injured.

The woman didn’t know the alleged home invader, Alioto said. Shortly before the incident, police also received a call of a gunman confronting a person nearby in the same neighborhood.

Officers recovered a weapon at the scene, police said.

The officer will be placed on a routine 30-day administrative leave pending an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Alioto said.

The shooting was in the same block as the Suder Montessori Elementary Magnet School and about three blocks northwest of the United Center, where the Chicago Bulls were playing their final game of the season.

After the Bulls game ended, some bemused fans returned to find their parked cars marked off by crime scene tape.

Jomani Tims said he was walking his dog a few blocks away, near Warren and Leavitt, when he heard five or six gunshots.

“Thought it was fireworks but then there was just all this yelling,” he said.