A felon on parole for illegal gun possession shot at four Chicago police officers who were sitting in marked patrol cars on the South Side early Monday, and the officers heard bullets “whizzing” past them as the gunman fired from behind a parked vehicle, prosecutors said Thursday.
Three years ago, CWB Chicago reported that the accused man was charged with shooting a carjacking victim who did not surrender his vehicle quickly enough. He ended up pleading guilty to a much less serious charge. More on that in a moment.
On the morning of the latest incident, four officers had been sent to the 800 block of West 75th Street after supervisors received complaints about prostitution in the area, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Rusch said.
At about 6:02 a.m., the fully uniformed cops were parked side-by-side, speaking with each other with their windows down when Sedrick Griffin, 31, allegedly arrived in the area driving a 2005 Nissan Armada.
Surveillance cameras recorded Griffin exiting the SUV from the driver’s seat wearing black clothing, including a black sweatshirt with a distinctive logo, Rusch said. Griffin allegedly walked behind a parked truck, crouched down, then stood up, raised a handgun, and fired toward the squad cars.
He fired once, paused briefly, and then fired approximately seven additional rounds in the direction of the squad cars, Rusch said. All four officers heard the gunfire and the sound of bullets “whizzing” by them, according to Rusch. Two of the officers were facing Griffin when the shooting began and allegedly saw him firing in their direction.
After firing the shots, Griffin ran back to the Nissan Armada and sped away from the scene, said Rusch. The officers pursued him in their patrol vehicles and saw him lose control of the SUV a short distance away. Rusch said the Nissan crashed into two parked cars with enough force to flip one of them onto its side and eject Griffin from the vehicle.
Griffin then ran through a gangway and a series of backyards before the officers caught him, Rusch said, adding that the entire incident, from the first gunshot until Griffin was taken into custody, lasted about three minutes. The shooting, the crash, and the foot pursuit were recorded by multiple surveillance cameras and officers’ bodycams.
As officers searched the route Griffin took while running, they recovered a 9-millimeter handgun that had been reported stolen during a car burglary in early January, Rusch said.
Crime scene technicians recovered eight spent shell casings from the location where Griffin allegedly fired the gun. Preliminary ballistic testing indicated the shell casings were consistent with having been fired from the recovered handgun, according to Rusch.
After being advised of his rights, Griffin allegedly admitted to firing the gun, but he claimed he fired into the air, a statement prosecutors said is contradicted by surveillance footage and the officers’ accounts.
Griffin was detained by Judge Shauna Boliker. He is charged with four counts of attempted murder of a police officer, four counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm toward a police officer, possession of a firearm by a repeat felon, being a felon in possession of a firearm, felony criminal damage to government property, and misdemeanor driving infractions.
Griffin is on parole for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, a crime for which he received a relatively light sentence of just two years in November. He was paroled the next month after serving less than a year behind bars, records show.
In May 2023, Griffin was on parole for aggravated battery of a peace officer when prosecutors said he shot a carjacking victim in the leg because the man did not surrender his car fast enough.
The 34-year-old victim parked his red Mercedes on the 1500 block of East 75th Street around 11 p.m. on May 11, 2023. But before he even stepped out of the vehicle, Griffin tapped on the driver’s side window with a gun and demanded his keys, Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Dale-Schmidt claimed during an initial bail hearing.
She said Griffin reached through the partially open window and pressed the gun to the man’s left thigh, threatening to shoot him if he did not comply. When the victim didn’t act quickly enough, Griffin allegedly fired a shot at point-blank range, sending a bullet clean through the victim’s leg and into the driver’s seat.
The victim opened the door and rolled onto the ground, leaving his keys inside the car. Griffin stepped over the man, got into the Mercedes, and drove away, Dale-Schmidt said at the time. She said a surveillance camera recorded the entire incident.
Officers eventually found the hijacked car parked in an alley with Griffin and an unidentified woman running from the vehicle. Cops chased Griffin down and allegedly found the Mercedes’ key fob in his jacket pocket. Officers found a 9-millimeter bullet in the car and a bullet hole in the driver’s seat.
While prosecutors charged Griffin with a host of felonies, including shooting someone during the commission of a vehicular hijacking, he ultimately pleaded guilty to a much lesser charge of attempted possession of a stolen motor vehicle, court records show.
Judge James Novy handed him a two-year sentence, which was almost completely satisfied by the time Griffin had spent in jail and the state’s automatic 50% sentence reduction.
