CHICAGO — Two suspects are in custody after they tried to carjack an on-duty Chicago police officer outside the city’s 311 headquarters on the Near West Side. Officers assigned to take police reports over the phone work at the facility.
In a media statement that did not identify the victim as a Chicago police officer, CPD said the 37-year-old was sitting in his car in a parking lot in the 2100 block of West Lexington just before 9 p.m. Monday when two men approached him with handguns.
After being forced from his car at gunpoint, the victim “runs into a nearby building and alerts CPD officers,” the police media statement said, without identifying the building as the city’s 311 call center.
The hijackers got into the cop’s car but could not operate it, so they ran away. But they didn’t get far. Cops arrested them in the 800 block of South Oakley, according to a Chicago police report.
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson said the department “could not confirm” if the victim was an on-duty Chicago police officer. According to the police report, city employment records, and law enforcement sources, he was.
Officers assigned to the callback section at the 311 center are typically unable to work patrol duties due to illness, pregnancy, or because they are stripped of police powers pending a disciplinary investigation.
Charges are pending against the two suspects.
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