Man accused of shooting police officer in bullet-proof vest held without bail

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Swaleh Mohammed has been charged with firing shots at police, striking one in a bullet-proof vest. | Police; Sun-Times/Ashlee Rezin

A 33-year-old man who allegedly shot at police officers during a standoff Saturday at the Far North Side home he shared with his parents was ordered Monday to be held without bail.

Swaleh Mohammed allegedly opened fire after three police officers attempted to enter the home. Mohammed’s parents had been hiding in a bedroom and passed the officers keys to the house through a window, Assistant State’s Attorney Britt Steinberg said during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Mohammed is charged with three counts of attempted murder of a police officer and three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a police officer.

Police arrived at the house in the 6400 block of North Kedzie at 5:40 p.m. after Mohammed’s parents called 911 to report their son acting “angrily and erratically,” Steinberg said.

The first two officers to arrive attempted to talk to Mohammed through the locked front door, then began talking in Urdu to Mohammed’s barricaded parents through the open window. The parents told the officers Mohammed had a gun and remained inside the house.

A third officer arrived, and was the first through the door after the officers unlocked a back door of the house and entered, announcing they were police in both English and Urdu.

Once inside, the three officers saw Mohammed standing in the dining room of the house with a 9 mm handgun. Mohammed allegedly opened fire, striking one of the officers, who took cover in the kitchen and tried to fire back as the two other officers retreated down the back stairs.

A bullet struck the first officer in the lower part of the bulletproof vest, which deflected the shot. The officer fired back at Mohammed, but his gun jammed. Taking cover against a kitchen wall, the officer cleared his weapon and began firing back at Mohammed, who fled to a bedroom and refused to come out. Mohammed, Steinberg said, fired at total of seven shots at the officers over a span of a little more than a minute.

A stalemate ensued for about 18 minutes, until officers outside the house reported seeing Mohammed place both his hands on the window of the bedroom, with no gun in either hand.

The officer who had been hit in the vest rushed Mohammed in the bedroom, and was able to take him into custody. Police said Saturday that a SWAT unit had been called to the scene, but Mohammed was taken into custody before they arrived.

Mohammed was taken to Masonic hospital but was released into police custody. The officer who took a bullet to his vest was uninjured, and neither of the other two officers was hit, Steinberg said. Police said Saturday that Mohammed’s parents also were unhurt.

Police found the handgun and seven spent shell casings inside the house, Steinberg said.

Mohammed appeared in court wearing a maroon hooded sweatshirt over what appeared to be medical scrubs. Upon entering the courtroom, he announced to Judge Stephanie Miller that he had not been allowed to make a phone call or speak to an attorney and said, “I don’t remember them reading my rights.” As he was led out at the end of the brief hearing, he asked, “Can I get some water?”

His court-appointed public defender said that Mohammed had degrees from Northeastern University and a nursing school, and that he worked as a home health care nurse.

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