Chicago police transit cops shoot man ‘jumping from train to train’ during struggle at Red Line Grand stop

Tribune Content Agency

CHICAGO — Police shot a man at the CTA’s Grand Red Line station Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he remains in critical but “stable,” condition following surgery, Police Deputy Superintendent Barbara West told reporters at a news conference Friday night.

The shooting happened shortly after 4 p.m. in the subway 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.

West said two officers assigned to the mass transit unit tried to stop a man who they saw “jumping from train (car) to train (car),” which is a violation of a city ordinance.

The officers pursued the man from the train onto the platform, where a struggle ensued when the officers tried to place the man in custody, causing both officers to deploy their tasers on the man.

“At some point” during the brawl, one of the officers discharged their gun striking the man twice, West said.

Both officers will be restricted from field duties and will be placed on administrative duties pending the outcome of an investigation, West said.

“We are conducting concurrent criminal and administrative investigations into this incident,” West said.

West said she had been in contact with the interim police superintendent, Charlie Beck, and said they were both “extremely concerned” and had “significant questions” about the incident.

West also told reporters police were “aware” of a video circulating on social media of the alleged shooting. She added, however, that there was additional video from passengers on the train. Police declined to answer when asked if a weapon was confiscated from the man shot.

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. Police also blocked off the 500 block of North State Street. Passersby 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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