A Chicago police officer and two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents were shot on Wednesday morning amid a rise in shootings in the city.
Chicago Police superintendent David Brown told reporters at a press conference that the officer and two agents were working an undercover operation. The three were traveling in the same unmarked car and were shot while attempting to merge onto a freeway near the 22nd Chicago Police District headquarters.
“One of the ATF agents was hit in the hand, another was hit in the side/torso area, and our Chicago police officer [was] hit in the back of the head” in a “graze wound,” Brown said. All three officers were hospitalized in stable condition, and none have life-threatening injuries.
Brown noted that the Chicago officer is the 36th member of Chicago police to be shot so far this year. Brown could not reveal whether police believed there to be one or multiple suspects, but said they were not in custody at this point.
Over 100 people were shot in the city over the Fourth of July weekend. Police recorded 1,515 shooting incidents and 1,880 shooting victims for the first six months of 2021, compared with 1,377 incidents and 1,656 victims over the same period in 2020.
Additionally, there were 332 homicides in Chicago during the first half of the year, compared with 338 in the first half of 2020 and 246 for the first half of 2019.
Along with other major American cities, Chicago saw widespread rioting and looting last summer following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Source: National Review
