CHICAGO — A Chicago Police commander and another officer shot a person after he fled from police and attempted to hit them with his car early Saturday morning, police said.
The 10th District Commander, Frank Valadez, was on patrol with another officer at 1:30 a.m. Saturday when they saw a moving car fire shots at an occupied car near the intersection of 23rd Street and Wood Street in the Heart of Chicago, police said in a news release.
The officers pursued the shooters, who after fleeing crashed their car into parked cars near the intersection of 19th Street and Ashland Avenue, police said. When Valadez and the other officer approached the car, the shooters "purposefully reversed their vehicle" with the intention to hit the commander and his partner, police said in a statement.
The officers then fired at the car, hitting at least one of the shooters. They continued to flee but were apprehended after their car crashed into other nearby cars, police said.
One of the men was "unfortunately killed," said Police Supt. Garry McCarthy at a Monday news conference about illegally owned guns seized by police.
Police arrested several others in connection with the shooting. More information on the shooters' identities was not released, but McCarthy said there four men in the car who had a history of about 65 arrests between them, including 10 for gun violence.
The man who was charged with firing at the car had served "65 percent" of his time for a previous murder conviction while another man in the car was out on bond for shooting into a house, McCarthy said.
In a statement released Saturday, McCarthy said: "Last night, Commander Francis Valadez and an officer witnessed an attempted murder and aggressively pursued those responsible. While the police involved shooting is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, the incident is a clear depiction of how the men and women of the Chicago Police Department are on the front lines, relentlessly targeting those individuals who torment our neighborhoods with gun violence."
Police said they found a handgun in the shooters' car.
Valadez and the other officer, whose name was not released, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
"That's leadership," McCarthy said of their actions on Monday.
The incident is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority. Police policy prohibits officers from firing at a moving car when it is "the only force used against the sworn member or another person," but McCarthy said "at first blush" it did not look as if police had broken that policy since they knew there was a gun in the car.
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