Nine people were shot Tuesday in citywide gun violence, including one gun battle which wounded a Chicago police officer and a 15-year-old music student, and left a suspected bank robber dead in Irving Park on the Northwest Side.
The incident was sparked by a bank robbery Tuesday afternoon in northwest suburban Des Plaines, when a bank teller who handed over the money to a pair of bank robbers was able to conceal a tracking device that allowed police to monitor its location, police said.
One suspect was arrested on the scene, but another robber, a 32-year-old man, was able to steal a car and drive into the 4300 block of West Irving Park Road, where Chicago police officers were waiting for him, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said.
The man opened fire on the officers, striking one of them in the head, Johnson said. The officer, a 17-year Chicago Police Department veteran, was listed in “serious-but-stable” condition Tuesday at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
A Des Plaines police officer then chased the suspect into a nearby music store about 7 p.m. and exchanged gunfire with him, Johnson said. The officer struck the man and killed him, but a 15-year-old boy was also wounded in the crossfire.
The boy — who was at the music store for a piano lesson — was shot in the abdomen and arm and had his condition stabilized at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Johnson said. It was not clear if he was shot by the Des Plaines officer or the robbery suspect.
In other shootings across Chicago, another 15-year-old boy was seriously wounded in West Lawn on the Southwest Side.
He was walking in the 7100 block of South Lawndale Avenue about 12:45 a.m. when he heard shots and felt a pain, Chicago police said. The boy told police he did not see a shooter or know where the shots came from.
He was struck in the lower back and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition, police said.
Two teenagers were shot about six hours later in Lawndale on the West Side.
The pair, a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man, were on the sidewalk about 6:47 p.m. in the 4100 block of West 15th Street when someone approached them and fired shots, police said. The 17-year-old was hit in the thigh and the 18-year-old man was grazed in the ankle.
Both had their conditions stabilized at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
A 17-year-old boy was critically wounded earlier in the afternoon, when he was shot on the Southeast Side.
He was inside a vehicle about 5:17 p.m. in the 10900 block of Avenue O when someone approached him and opened fire, police said. The teen was struck in the back and side and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.
Two other men were wounded in shootings in Gage Park and Lawndale on the South and West Sides, respectively.
One man, 27, was shot about 8:05 p.m. in the 2700 block of West 56th Street while the other man, 32, was shot about 6:36 p.m. in the 1200 block of South Spaulding Avenue, police said. Both were stabilized.
Tuesday’s shootings follow a 26-hour period in which no people were shot in Chicago.
