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Police Fatally Shoot Suspected Armed Carjacker on South Side

By DNAinfo Staff on January 7, 2013 6:22pm  | Updated on January 9, 2013 1:43pm

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DNAInfo/Michael Shin
CHICAGO — Police fatally shot a male suspect Monday believed to have stolen a car in an armed carjacking, authorities said.

The police-involved shooting occurred about 1:45 p.m. near the intersection of 75th Street and  Jeffrey Boulevard, Chicago Police said in a statement.

Plain clothes officers spotted a vehicle matching a car that had been taken in an armed carjacking, the statement said.

The officers stopped the car in the 2000 block of East 75th Street where the driver exited the vehicle holding a dark object, police said.

An officer fired and hit the driver, the statement said. The man, later identified as Frederick Chatmen, 17, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead about 2:45 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

The police statement did not indicate whether a weapon was found at the scene.

Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, said the case is under investigation. He could not verify what the object was.

Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Patrick Camden said the incident unfolded when two police officers grew suspicious of a grey Dodge Charger with Wisconsin plates heading west on  75th Street with only a driver in the car.

Officers ran the plates in a police database to see if the car had been involved in any crimes, Camden said, but did not find anything and did not stop the car. But they then received a police radio broadcast about a similar car being stolen in an armed carjacking, he said.

The officers surrounded the car as it was stopped in traffic at the intersection of 75th and Jeffrey, Camden said.

The driver got out of the car, and then raised his left hand and appeared to be bending down to grab something with his right hand, Camden said. He then ran south on Jeffrey, Camden said, and the officers chased him and saw him turning with a black object in his hand.

"They were fearing it might be a gun," Camden said. "One officer shot him, fearing that he might get shot."