Police in the Jefferson Park neighborhood shot a teenage boy Friday morning after he swung a wooden board at one of them, according to authorities.
The boy, either 16 or 17 years old, was shot twice and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with wounds to his arm and leg, Fraternal Order of Police Spokesman Patrick Camden said.
It's not clear why he ran from two uniformed Jefferson Park district officers, who approached him and two others as they stood in an alley near the 4400 block of North Mulligan Avenue about 12:30 a.m.
Police stopped the boy and two others because they were hanging out in an alley and may have been breaking curfew, Camden said.
One of the officers gave chase on foot and the other in a car. During the chase, the boy ran down a gangway and confronted the pursuing officer with a piece of fence, according to Camden and a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
Camden said the boy noted his skills as a lacrosse player and said he 'knew how to swing.' The officer fired twice after the boy lunged at him, Camden said.
The board was collected as evidence, Camden said. Police in the neighborhood taped off at least four separate scenes -- one on Mulligan Avenue, another a block east on North Mobile Avenue, and two more in east-west alleys that run parallel to Montrose Avenue on both sides of Mulligan.
Neighbors stepped onto their porches long after the shooting happened as Camden spoke to reporters outside the scene.
The district where the shooting occurred is one of the city's largest, stretching from Belmont Avenue north to Howard Street, from Cicero Avenue west to and including O'Hare International Airport.
The district has had fewer shootings than 19 of the city's 21 other police districts and is one of four police districts with only one homicide all year.
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