The man fatally shot by Chicago police officers in Irving Park on Wednesday may not have fired his weapon at officers, the city’s police oversight agency, COPA, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
That runs counter to an earlier summary of events by CPD Supt. David Brown who, citing body camera footage, said there had been an “apparent exchange of gunfire.”
CWB Chicago reported exclusively on Wednesday that an officer who shot the still-unidentified man radioed that police had fired shots, but he specifically did not say that officers were fired upon when a dispatcher asked what happened. Listen:
Patrol officers encountered the man while searching the area for an armed man who had reportedly threatened people with a gun outside Christina’s Place, 3759 North Kedzie, around 3 a.m.
Officers found a man at the mouth of an alley in the 3700 block of North Troy, and the shooting quickly unfolded.
COPA, citing preliminary information, said two officers approached the man and then chased him when he ran away. The officers ordered him to get on the ground, and, after he fell in the alley, the cops told him to stay there, COPA’s statement said.
But the man began to get up, and both officers fired at him multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It is unclear, nor has it been determined by COPA, if the individual discharged his weapon at police,” COPA’s First Deputy Chief Administrator, Ephraim Eaddy said in the statement. “Our investigation is ongoing.”
Eaddy said COPA investigators were still trying to find more video and witnesses to help them determine what happened.
Within minutes of the shooting, a dispatcher asked the officer who initially called out shots fired to provide details about what happened.
“What do you guys have going on over there? Is this shots fired by the police or at the police?” the dispatcher radioed.
“Shots fired by the police. We have one subject down in the alley. He still has a gun in his hand,” the officer replied. Listen:
The city recently began encrypting police radio transmissions in the Albany Park (17th) District to prevent the public from hearing the broadcasts live and without the possibility of manipulation by officials.
Both officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative duties for 30 days, per CPD policy.
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