Holly MatkinChicago, IL – A search is underway for the gunman who shot a Chicago police sergeant as he was walking across a parking lot near the police station on Sunday afternoon.
Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent David Brown said the attack took place at the CPD station located at 7808 South Halstead Street at approximately 2:30 p.m., WMAQ reported.
The 45-year-old sergeant said he was walking through a parking lot across the street from the station when he heard a gunshot, according to police.
The sergeant then felt pain in his chin and realized he’d been shot, Superintendent Brown told the Chicago Tribune.
The wounded sergeant was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center with a graze wound to his face, WMAQ reported.
Police vehicles escorted the ambulance on its route from the scene to the hospital, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The sergeant, a 26-year veteran of the CPD, was released from the hospital on Sunday night and is recovering at home, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The CPD was still searching for the shooter on Sunday night, WMAQ reported.
Superintendent Brown said investigators have been combing through private videos and city surveillance footage to help them identify and apprehend the gunman, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The attack marked the 13th time a CPD officer has been shot at so far this year, Superintendent Brown said.
It was the first time this year that an officer has been hit by gunfire in the line of duty.
Superintendent Brown said the number of instances of officers being shot at in 2021 is currently on pace to exceed the number of officers who came under fire in 2020, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A total of 79 CPD officers were fired upon last year, he said.
“It just highlights the dangers of policing in the current environment we’re in,” the superintendent noted. “And I just want to end with: God bless our men and women in blue at the Chicago Police Department.”
As an officer was hanging crime scene tape along 78th Street in the wake of the attack on Sunday, a woman walked by him, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“You be careful out here,” she told him.
He thanked her and continued his task.
