CHICAGO _ An off-duty Chicago officer was fleeing police when he collided with another car on the West Side early Tuesday, killing himself and a woman driving the other car, authorities said.
The officer was traveling at a high rate of speed when his Jeep hit the other car shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday in the Lawndale neighborhood, according to chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
The officer's SUV rolled on its side and other car was crushed by the impact.
An on-duty officer had tried to pull over the Jeep shortly before the crash, Guglielmi said. The on-duty officer initially activated emergency lights to stop the off-duty officer, but at some point the on-duty officer turned off those lights.
"We know the off-duty officer did not stop and fled," Guglielmi said.
He could not say whether the on-duty officer was in pursuit at the time of the crash.
According to police radio traffic, the on-duty officer tells the dispatcher, "Just had a black Cherokee take off."
About 15 seconds later, the same officer radios, "Squad, Kostner and Roosevelt, Cherokee just got into a bad accident."
The dispatcher asks if the officers were involved or if they just witnessed the crash. The squad car was not involved.
The dispatcher asked if an ambulance was needed.
"Absolutely, squad. Absolutely."
Another officer told the dispatcher that the Fire Department needed to extract someone from the cars, and she wasn't able to tell what kind of vehicle the second one was.
"There's still people in there and they cannot get out," she said.
Sources said the off-duty officer was 32 and assigned to the Ogden District on the West Side. He had been a Chicago police officer since 2013.
Guglielmi said he did not know why the on-duty officer was trying to pull over the Jeep. "The reasons for the stop are not yet known," he said.
Guglielmi said there's no information that suggests the on-duty officer knew the person he was trying to pull over was an off-duty cop.
He said investigators are looking at surveillance cameras in the area.
Sharon Fairley, chief administrator for the Independent Police Review Authority, was at the scene of the crash.
