Police are investigating a strange incident in the Loop on Sunday evening that involved a bullet-riddled car, a brief chase, a car crash, and a driver who claims he was shot in the butt over a week earlier. Area Three detectives are still trying to unpack it all. Here’s what we know at this point:
Around 7:42 p.m., a police officer on bike patrol saw a black car with a flat tire and bullet holes in its windshield and body parked on the 600 block of South Wabash. He decided to strike up a conversation with a man and two women standing outside the car.
When he did, the man got into the driver’s seat and drove away. He reportedly sped from officers and crashed outside the Roosevelt Red Line station. Police detained him after a brief foot chase.
The driver, a 21-year-old man, told police he parked his car on Wabash and returned to find a group of people breaking out his vehicle’s windows, according to a CPD statement. He said one offender pulled out a gun and began shooting. One bullet struck him in the buttocks, he said. The man told police he then climbed into his car and tried to follow the offenders. That’s when the bike cop saw him, apparently.
An ambulance took the injured man to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition.
Meanwhile, witnesses told police they saw a car similar to the one he was driving chase a pickup truck into a nearby parking garage shortly before the crash. Some of those witnesses also reported hearing gunfire.
During conversations with police, the man later changed his story to say that he was actually shot in the buttocks during an unrelated incident on May 22 in the Garfield Park neighborhood.
As of Monday morning, investigators suspect the man’s car was shot up during an incident in the Loop on Sunday, but his gunshot wound may be from May 22. We’ll be sure to post updates as new information becomes available.
