CHICAGO _ A man wanted in the shooting of a Chicago police officer Saturday morning and a woman in the downtown area earlier this week has been taken into custody after being shot by police, according to a law enforcement source. No officers were injured during the "armed encounter with officers," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tweeted.
A 40-year-old Chicago police officer was shot multiple times Saturday on the South Side as he and other officers tried to arrest the suspect, 45-year-old Michael Blackman, who authorities believe also shot a woman as he rode a bicycle near downtown, according to sources.
City officials earlier 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 but his condition had stabilized and he was out of surgery. "He's talking to us," Johnson said. "He's still a little groggy from the anesthesia, but he's wiggling his toes."
Jane Kayle Lee, the trauma surgeon who performed surgery on the officer for roughly two hours, gave an update on his injuries, saying she believes that, though he was shot "multiple times," he will have a "good recovery."
"He came basically bleeding to death," Lee said. "He had already lost a significant amount of blood."
He suffered a gunshot wound to the groin and had two to his left lower leg, which was a "through and through" gunshot wound that ruptured one of the largest veins in the leg, Lee said. Surgeons repaired it after a blood transfusion.
The wounded officer applied his own tourniquet as his partner maintained pressure while he was in the squad car waiting for an ambulance, Johnson said, lauding the officers.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham 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."
Blackman has a criminal record dating back to 1991, Johnson said. Records show he has multiple convictions for burglary, most recently two 2003 cases for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison. A warrant was issued for his arrest on another burglary charge last year.
The motive for Wednesday's shooting remains unclear.
The officer was shot about 8:40 a.m. Saturday in the 6500 block of South Winchester Avenue.
The wounded officer, assigned to the 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, the sources said.
When officers arrived outside of a home about 8:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of West 65th Street, Blackman fled out of the building's back door, Johnson said.
The man was intercepted by the 40-year-old officer and his partner in the 6500 block of South Winchester Avenue where a physical struggle ensued and the suspect fired shots, hitting the officer in the groin and leg, but he and his partner managed to return fire. It's unclear if Blackman was wounded.
Multiple agencies assisted in the search including the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Guglielmi added that police were looking into whether Blackman shot a woman on June 8 near Surf Street and Broadway in the North Side's Lakeview community. That shooting and Wednesday's attack in the Fulton Market district appeared to be random, he said.
"We don't know why he did it. We have no connection with him and this young woman ... social, personal, anything," Guglielmi said of the victim in the Fulton River District incident. "So at this point, it's up in the air. It's looking more and more like a random shooting."
