Chicago police fatally shoot alleged attacker, injure victim in attempted stabbing in Austin

Chicago police fatally shot a man they said was trying to stab someone in the Austin neighborhood Monday night and also injured the person attacked.

Officers were patrolling the 300 block of South Cicero Avenue just after 11:10 p.m. when they encountered a man attempting to stab another man, police said. They ordered the man to stop and attempted to defuse the attack, but the man ignored them.

At least two officers fired shots, hitting both the attacker and the victim, Chicago police said.

Around 11:10 p.m., a police officer in distress was called over the police radio and police reported shortly after that two people had been injured. “Police shots fired,” an officer said on the radio. “This guy stabbed the victim multiple times.”

The shooting occurred near the border of the Harrison and Austin police districts, two of the city's most violent districts. As police responded to the shooting, calls for shots fired continued to be reported elsewhere as violence increased over the holiday weekend.

Police reported on radio that a tourniquet was quickly applied to at least one of the injured, although it took about nine minutes for the first ambulance to arrive on the scene. And it wasn't until 15 minutes after the shooting that police on scene confirmed to a dispatcher that officers were not looking for any suspects in the attack, according to radio reports.

The alleged attacker was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The victim was transported to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Two police officers were hospitalized for observation.

The shooting remains under investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which will conduct a use of force assessment. The officers concerned will be assigned to administrative tasks for at least one month.