Chicago police shoot man at downtown Chicago subway station

Tribune Content Agency

CHICAGO — Chicago police shot a man at a downtown Chicago commuter train station Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious to critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt.

The shooting happened shortly after 4 p.m. in the Chicago Transit Authority’s Grand Red Line station as officers were calling a 10-1, code for officer in need of assistance. “The whole train stop is gonna be a crime scene,” an officer radioed from the scene after the shooting.

A woman, who asked not to be identified, said she saw paramedics bring a person on a stretcher up on the Red Line elevator at the corner of Grand Avenue and State Street.

Police quickly set up a perimeter with yellow tape blocking the intersection of Grand Avenue and State Street, tying up downtown traffic. Passers-by walked by a throng of reporters and TV cameras as several helicopters buzzed overhead.

CTA trains were not stopping at the Grand Avenue stop.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability will be investigating the shooting, as is routine.

The shooting comes the same day Chicago police unveiled plans to beef up patrols because of a spike in crime on the CTA’s rail system. The department announced it will add 50 more officers to the unit that patrols the “L,” bringing the total to 250. And, in a first for the department, each transit unit officer will be equipped with tracking devices to better monitor and adjust how they’re deployed.

The department is also opening a Strategic Decision Support Center in the downtown police district, which for the first time will give police a central location to monitor the system’s 32,000 cameras in real time.

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