CHICAGO _ A 40-year-old Chicago police officer was shot multiple time Saturday morning on the South Side as he and other officers tried to arrest a suspect who, authorities believe, shot a woman as he rode a bicycle near downtown, according to law enforcement sources.
A manhunt is underway for the suspect in Chicago's West Englewood neighborhood, and city officials held a news conference at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where the officer is recovering.
"He's certainly not out of the woods," said Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson at a news conference at the hospital, but his condition had stabilized and he was out of surgery. "He's talking to us. He's still a little groggy from the anesthesia, but he's wiggling his toes."
The officer's surgeon also spoke during the news conference and gave an update of his injuries, saying she believes that, though he was shot "multiple times," he will have a "good recovery."
He suffered two holes in his left lower leg and a gunshot wound to his groin. the surgeon said, explaining the lower leg wound was a "through and through," gunshot wound.
When he came in, he was "bleeding to death," the doctor said, adding that he'd already lost a "significant amount of blood."
"I do expect that he will have a good recovery," the doctor said.
Johnson added the officer had applied his own tourniquet to stop the bleeding and fellow officers rushed him to the hospital in a squad car.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Kevin Graham, the police union spokesman, also delivered remarks. After thanking the officers in the fugitive apprehension unit, Lightfoot said their "quick work" and the doctor's actions "saved his life."
"Thanks to their excellent work he is out of surgery," Lightfoot said.
"I ask that all Chicagoans continue praying for the officer and his family," Lightfoot said. "Also, keep all of our first responders in our thoughts and prayers. They run to danger to protect us.''
Johnson ended the news conference by taking questions, and saying that the suspect remained at large and is believed to still be armed.
"There is a dangerous individual, there's no hiding that," Johnson said. The officer was shot about 8:40 a.m. in the 6500 block of South Winchester Avenue.
The wounded officer, assigned to the police department's fugitive apprehension unit, was part of a team that was trying to arrest the suspect in the West Englewood neighborhood for the Wednesday morning shooting that happened near downtown, the sources said.
That's when the officer was shot. Now, members of a SWAT team have surrounded a home near 65th Street and Winchester Avenue in West Englewood where they believed the gunman who shot the officer was holed up, sources said. However, during the news conference at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Johnson said a search was underway for him.
Shortly before noon, police escorted a young woman inside who identified herself as the wounded officer's sister. Asked of his condition as she entered the elevator, an officer replied for her: "We don't know yet."
More than a dozen police vehicles, marked and unmarked, lined the emergency entrance to Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn and uniformed officers lingered outside the ambulance entrance in a light drizzle.
