Chicago Officer Injured During Investigation

CHICAGO --

A Chicago police officer injured on the scene of a double homicide early Saturday needed 23 stitches, police said Sunday. Two men were found shot dead at two different locations on the 8700 block of South Princeton Avenue about at 3 a.m., according to police News Affairs Officer Marcel Bright.

The Gresham District police officer was going over a fence when his right arm was cut on a sharp point coming out of the fence, according to Gresham District police Lt. Mike Divittorio. Divittorio said he was not sure of the circumstances surrounding the injury. The officer needed 23 stitches, but has been treated and released as of 2 p.m. Sunday. There are no suspects in custody as of Sunday afternoon, according to a Calumet Area detective.

Police discovered the first man, a 22 year-old with a gunshot wound to his chest on W. 87th Street near the intersection at 87th and Princeton, Bright said.

Jerry Friend was pronounced at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 3:55 a.m., according to a spokesman with the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The spokesman said the man was shot in the 8800 block of S. Yale Avenue.

The South Princeton Avenue address is very close to 88th and Yale, Bright said.

Upon information that a witness might have seen someone shot in their backyard, a 20-year-old man was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds in a backyard on the 8700 block of South Princeton Avenue, Bright said.

Herbert Cosey, 20, ofS. Kerfoot Avenue, was pronounced at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 4:47 a.m., the medical examiner's office spokesman said.

Police received numerous calls of multiple shots fired from residents around the area of the shootings, Bright said.

The shootings are being treated as related incidents, but no weapons have been recovered from the area.

Calumet Area detectives are investigating the homicides.

Copyright 2007, Sun-Times News Group