Feb. 12--A man who used a van as a battering ram to break into a garage, then knocked an off-duty police officer to the ground and kept driving was shot and fatally injured by the officer in the South Chicago neighborhood this morning, authorities said.
The man was shot in the alley in the 7900 block of South Jeffery Boulevard just after 7 a.m., after the officer was hit by the van, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said. The officer had been knocked to the ground and the driver was still driving back and forth, hitting the garage and the officer's car, when the shooting took place, said Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden.
The man injured in the shooting later died, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
He was identified as 47-year-old Derrick Suttle, of the 7700 block of South Luella Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood, about three blocks from where he was killed.
Another man who was in the van at the time the officer was injured was arrested after the shooting, Camden said.
One person was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn from the Jeffery Boulevard location, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor. The officer was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center for evaluation, Camden said.
The officer was at home about 7 a.m. when he and his wife heard a loud crashing sound behind their home, police said. An alarm also alerted them to something going on in the garage, Camden said.
The officer put on his police shirt, and he and his wife got into their car and drove around to the alley, Camden said. The officer went out back to see what was going on and found a man using a van to try to break into the garage by pushing open the garage door with the vehicle, police said.
The officer and his wife stopped their car behind the van, the officer got out of the car and told the two in the van they were under arrest, Camden said. When the officer identified himself to the driver of the van, instead of stopping, the driver aimed the van at the officer, hitting him, police said.
The van driver hit the officer's car and the garage door, sideswiping the officer and throwing him to the ground, then continued going back and forth, endangering the officer, who fired two shots, hitting the driver, Camden said.
The other person in the van jumped out and ran off, but was arrested nearby by tactical officers, Camden said.
The Independent Police Review Authority was investigating an incident in which an officer fired shots, a spokesman said.
Photos from the scene show a man in dark clothing on a stretcher, being tended to by Fire Department paramedics in an alley.
Copyright 2012 - Chicago Tribune
