An off-duty Cook County sheriff’s officer shot a man who fired a gun at him after refusing to be wanded at a Millennium Park security checkpoint on Friday evening, Chicago police said. Cops arrested the suspect at a party boat along the Riverwalk and EMS took him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, according to CPD.
The city installed the checkpoints as part of its response to the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy near The Bean last weekend.
Around 7:22 p.m. Friday, a 22-year-old man reportedly refused to let a security worker scan him with a metal detector at an entrance near Monroe and Michigan. CPD said he jumped a fence, turned around, and fired as the off-duty officer approached. The cop returned fire, striking the man in the left buttock.
After being shot, the man ran to near Columbus Drive and the Chicago River, where police arrested him near the Island Party Hut tiki boat, 355 East Riverwalk. On Saturday morning, CPD announced that its divers recovered a gun the man threw into the Chicago River.
Investigators found a shell casing near the BP Pedestrian Bridge that connects Millennium and Maggie Daley parks at Columbus Drive.
EMS took the 44-year-old sheriff’s officer to a hospital for observation, but he was not shot.
The suspect is the 14th person shot in the Loop community area this year. Two of this year’s shootings were by police officers.
The area had five shooting victims at this point last year, including one that was self-inflicted. There were three victims as of May 21, 2020, and three at this point in 2019. Two of 2019’s shootings were deemed self-defense, and the Loop had no more shootings for the rest of the year.
