Associated Press
CHICAGO — A man used a fire escape Monday to infiltrate a Chicago police facility while officers were undergoing a SWAT training exercise and grabbed at least two guns before he was shot and wounded by police, the chief said.
Police Superintendent David Brown said the suspect was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening. One officer was taken to the hospital with a sprained ankle.
Brown said the suspect had asked where to go to retrieve personal property at the facility on Chicago’s West Side before entering the building in Homan Square by the fire escape. He was seen on video leaving the facility and then returning to infiltrate it.
He said that investigators believe the man grabbed at least two guns that were on a table during the training exercise and pointed them at officers.
The officer was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in stable condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department. He was not shot.
The suspect was taken to another hospital in critical condition with at least one gunshot wound.
The West Side police facility is in a large red brick building that houses evidence and recovered property on the first floor. Some of the police department’s specialized units also work out of the building.
Early Monday afternoon, crime scene tape was stretched across South Homan Avenue a block south of the police station and across the same street just north of the building.
A nearby school was placed on lockdown.
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