Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A woman whose brother called 911 to report she was rampaging through the home they shared and had picked up a knife was fatally shot by police when she refused to drop the knife and advanced on a police officer, authorities said.
The police-involved shooting took place in the 10900 block of South Eberhart Avenue about 6:40 p.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer. The Cook County medical examiner’s office was notified that the woman died, but did not have yet have detailed information.
A woman who suffered a gunshot wound was taken in serious to critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center about 7:30 p.m., according to the Chicago Fire Department’s news office.
The Independent Police Review Authority was investigating the shooting, a spokesman said.
The woman’s brother called 911 when the woman, who had a history of alcohol and drug problems, was “tearing the house up,” then picked up a knife, said Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 spokesman Pat Camden.
A statement from the Chicago Police Department stated the woman was “possibly under the influence of narcotics,” according to the person who called 911.
When police arrived and got into the home, the woman still had the knife, and would not drop it when police told her to, Camden said. She then started approaching an officer with the knife, and police shot her, Camden said.
In WGN-TV video from the scene following the incident, a woman identified by WGN as a family member of the woman shot can be seen running toward an area cordoned off with crime scene tape as police rush up to the tape to keep her away from the shooting scene, then being restrained by someone while screaming and shouting “Let me go! Let me go!.”
Soon after, another woman and a man run toward the crime scene tape as someone screams “Jesus, God, Jesus!” and someone yells “No! No!”
The shooting was just blocks from where officers shot a man who stabbed a police sergeant Tuesday night. The sergeant in that incident had to have more than 50 stitches, Camden said.
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