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Wounded Officers: 'God Was With Us Tonight'

CHICAGO – Two Chicago police officers were shot and wounded late Monday in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.

The 29-year-old patrolmen from the West Side Harrison police district were expected to recover from their injuries, according to police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who spoke with reporters this morning outside the emergency room at Stroger Hospital.

“God was with us tonight,” McCarthy said.

The officers were approaching a man to conduct a narcotics-related street interview near the intersection of Wilcox Street and Karlov Avenue at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, when the man pulled a handgun and opened fire on them, police said. The officers were trying to make a street stop due to the area’s high drug-related traffic, police said. The gunman fled on foot.

Both officers suffered non-life-threatening wounds, McCarthy said. One officer, a three-year veteran, received a graze wound to the head and gunshot wound to a bicep, McCarthy said. His partner, a four-year veteran, has a bullet lodged behind his left ear, but was alert and awake at the hospital.

Authorities were questioning several people, but hadn’t located the suspect, police said.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said he’d been told the wounded officers were expected to recover, but had few other details.

Police condoned off several surrounding streets with red and yellow tape, and as about a dozen cops — uniformed and plainclothes — walked the area, questioning residents. About 10 officers could be seen walking south on Keeler Avenue past Jackson Boulevard, a few of them with dogs and a couple others in SWAT uniforms carrying rifles

A number of onlookers gazed curiously at the large police presence outside some residences, many of the them two-story apartment buildings. Six youths were also shooting baskets in an alley near the shooting scene.

A helicopter, meanwhile, circled the area overhead.