A SWAT team stormed an Arlington Heights home late Thursday night and fatally shot a 41-year-old Niles man suspected of shooting a police officer and taking one person hostage, authorities said.
The freed hostage was uninjured but was taken to a local hospital for observation, authorities said.
The injured officer, a 20-year veteran of the department, was in critical condition at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, although his condition was believed to have been stabilized, an Arlington Heights police commander said in a news conference at the scene. The officer's family was with him at the hospital, and he was in surgery just before 10 p.m., police said.
The officer was shot in the neck when police first responded to a call of a man with a gun about 6:50 p.m. in the 1900 block of Windham Court in the northwest suburb, Cmdr. Andrew Whowell said. The officer was the first to try to enter the townhome and was shot while going in, Whowell said.
"Responding officers that were with him were able to pull him out of the residence, to safety," Whowell said.
Following the shooting, the suspect, whom Whowell said police were familiar with, held one woman inside the home as a hostage, police said.
As dozens of officers surrounded the residential area where the shooting took place, police communicated with the gunman and tried to persuade him to surrender peacefully, Whowell said. Police also shot out streetlights in the area for tactical purposes, Whowell said.
About 10:30 p.m., a SWAT team forced its way inside and shot the gunman, Whowell said. The man, identified as Eric M. Anderson, was taken to Northwest Community Hospital and pronounced dead at 11:02 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The standoff unfolded in a neighborhood of townhouses just northwest of Arlington Heights and Palatine roads.
Marla Futterman said she had been dining at a nearby restaurant when officers entered the restaurant and told workers there that an officer had been shot and that the eatery should lock its doors.
A large stretch of Palatine Road was blocked off, and multiple squad cars from several different suburban communities were parked along the median along Palatine Road.
Copyright 2013 - Chicago Tribune
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
