A 15-year-old boy who was wounded in the crossfire during a gun battle between police and a bank robbery suspect on the Northwest Side Tuesday was “most likely” shot by an officer from Des Plaines, Chicago Police said Wednesday.
CPD First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio offered that information Wednesday as he briefed reporters Wednesday. The Des Plaines officer was at the scene because the bank robbery had occurred in the northwest suburb.
Riccio also told reporters the conditions of the 15-year-old, a student at Lane Tech High School, and a CPD officer wounded in the incident, have improved.
An email sent Wednesday from administrators to parents at Lane Tech read: “It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that a current Lane Tech student was the innocent victim of a shooting incident yesterday. He is in critical condition, but we cannot release the name at this time. We ask that the Lane community keep this family in our hearts.”
The boy, a Lane Tech sophomore, was working as a student-intern at Upbeat Music and Arts when the robbery suspect, who’d just shot a Chicago police officer, ran into the building at 4318 W. Irving Park Road.
Riccio giving an update pic.twitter.com/wGbnALf6yC
— Sam Charles (@samjcharles) November 20, 2019
The boy was at Lurie Children’s Hospital on Wednesday. The officer, 46, was at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the officer was in good spirits Wednesday despite suffering a bullet wound that entered and exited his skull.
The 17-year Chicago Police Department veteran, who was listed in serious-but-stable condition, was able to speak with Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a visit, Guglielmi said.
The robbery suspect was killed in the gun battle. The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him Wednesday as Christopher Terrell Willis, 32, of the 6000 block of South Rhodes Avenue in Chicago.
The front door to the music school is normally unlocked by buzzer by a receptionist, according to Tracy Baldwin, who had kids who attend the school but were not there during the shooting.
The robbery suspect rushed past someone as the door was briefly open, according to police.
Baldwin, who said class was in session at the time, said a video shot by a bystander and posted to social media by a local television station showed police entering the front door of the music school. At nearly the same time, the video shows, a music instructor opening a side door a few feet away with his hands up. Others from inside the school also quickly exited.
Baldwin shuddered to think what other nearby doors the gunman might have tried to get into had he not been able to enter the music school.
A popular Irish bar and restaurant, a building that houses foster children for the state’s Department of Children and Family Services and a busy YMCA were all steps away, Baldwin noted.
“It’s horrifying to think about,” she said.
The dead robbery suspect was part of a two-man team — an armed robber and a getaway driver — that robbed a Bank of America located at 1300 E. Oakton St., Des Plaines, according to a new release issued Wednesday by the Des Plaines Police Department.
Des Plaines police officers located the vehicle in an alley about a half mile from the bank and the men fled on foot. One of the suspects was quickly arrested. The other escaped and carjacked a Buick that officers spotted and chased at high speeds onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway, according to the news release.
Authorities were aided by a tracking device a bank teller concealed in the money that was handed over during the robbery, police said.
Chicago police officers were waiting for him when he exited the Kennedy Expressway at Irving Park Road.
“Upon seeing CPD, the offender fired at the vehicles,” striking the veteran officer, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Tuesday. The officer has received more than 100 departmental awards “for his exemplary police work,” Johnson added.
The suspect crashed his vehicle before running into the music school, police said.
A Des Plaines officer chased the suspect into the music school, where they exchanged gunfire. At the time, it was unclear if the Lane Tech student was shot by the robbery suspect or the Des Plaines officer.
No shots were fired by Chicago police officers.
In an email sent to parents Tuesday, Scott Barbeau, the executive director of the music school, said the injured boy’s condition had stabilized.
“All other teachers and students were physically safe, thanks to the quick and courageous efforts of our teachers,” he said.
