Police Shooting Update

We heard the scanner traffic played at roll call earlier. That dispatcher sucked. We understand being flustered by the chaos of a police shooting and the screaming going on, but to get an address wrong four times? Someone needs to go to a slower zone and learn the job before being thrown into the fire.

The scanner had a time clock attached to it - almost nine minutes to get an ambulance there.Not a calm nine minutes of waiting.

A pet peeve of ours, and evidently, many of our readers. The coppers wounds were described as "not life threatening" or "officers are expected to recover" or even "minor" in some media outlets.Points of order:

• One officer was struck in the vest, twice. Blunt trauma like that can result in an interruption of the heart rhythm. People have died from being punched in the chest or tackled or struck with a baseball. It's life threatening. Period.
• One officer was struck in the leg. It might not kill you, but damage like that can leave you with a permanent limp, multiple surgeries, months of physical therapy. It might not be "life threatening," but it is certainly "life altering."
• One officer was struck below the vest. The bullet actually traveled through his body and had to be extricated via an extensive surgical procedure. The concern now is a resultant infection due to the nature of the wound. That is definitely "life threatening" and the acting Superintendent's statement to the contrary is a disservice to the pain and suffering the officer, his family and co-workers are currently undergoing.

Describing these wounds are anything but "life threatening" also will come into play in any future lawsuit as a plaintiff attorney will undoubtedly claim that the lack of a "life-threatening injury" means the police must have overreacted.

Cook County "Justice"

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.
  
  [...]
  
  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.

Three Officers Shot

Breaking news tonight:

• Three Chicago Police officers were shot but were expected to survive their wounds and an attacker was shot to death in the Homan Square neighborhood Monday night while a woman who was with him was in custody, police said.

Updates as they become available.

UPDATE: One PO shot in the vest, one PO shot in the leg, one PO shot in the torso. No word on surgery, treatment, etc.

UPDATE: Check any of the media sites on the right - they all have what we have at the moment.

UPDATE: Moving this post to the top of the page for the day. Other stories posted below this one.