Does anyone ever do any serious time in Cook County?
- Three Chicago police officers were shot Monday night by a reputed gang member who had been arrested more than 40 times since the 2000s for offenses ranging from drug dealing to violence against law enforcement, police said.
The officers fatally shot 29-year-old Lamar Harris during a brief gun battle when they chased him into a dark courtyard outside an apartment building in the West Side's Homan Square neighborhood, police said. The officers had been investigating Harris, a reputed member of the Vice Lords, for "possible narcotics activity" when the shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m., authorities said.
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Harris' criminal history includes 43 arrests going back to at least 2004, including five felony and two misdemeanor convictions, according to police and court records. His most recent felony conviction was in January 2012 for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and resisting a peace officer causing injury. Records show he was sentenced to four years in prison in that case.
That incident happened in July 2010 in the 5600 block of West Chicago Avenue after officers responded to a call of a "man with a gun," police said. Harris, stopped by officers because he matched the gunman's description, pushed one officer backward and struck another in the head while trying to flee, police said.
While officers attempted to arrest him, Harris reached for his waistband and a handgun fell from his waist, police said. The officers recovered the gun and found marijuana in Harris' possession, police said.
All by the ripe old age of twenty-nine. And again, five different felony convictions, all precluding him from possessing a gun, but there he is lying dead on the pavement with a gun. Good riddance.