CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago police officer shot Tuesday in Old Irving Park on the Northwest Side by a bank robbery suspect continues to make progress in his recovery, authorities said Wednesday.
The officer was wounded about 7 p.m. after a 32-year-old suspect opened fire on police in the 4300 block of West Irving Park Road, according to police.
The officer was hit in the head and was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical. He suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, but had made signs of improving overnight, CPD First Supt. Of Police Anthony Riccio told reporters Wednesday.
The suspect fled into the nearby Upbeat Music and Arts school, 4318 W. Irving Park Road, and officers with Des Plaines police exchanged gunfire and fatally shot him, Chicago police said.
The suspect was identified as Christopher Terrell Willis, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in Woodlawn on the South Side.
The man was wanted in connection with a robbery about 4:30 p.m. at the Bank of America branch at 1300 E. Oakton St. in Des Plaines, according to a statement from Des Plaines police. A masked suspect entered the bank, pointed a handgun and the teller and ordered the teller to put money in a bag.
The robber then left the area in a vehicle driven by a second person, Des Plaines police said. Officers found both people inside the vehicle in an alley in the 1900 block of Ash Street.
Both suspects got out and ran, according to Des Plaines police. One was caught a short time later while the other got away. About 6:45 p.m., the man carjacked a woman at gunpoint in the 1900 block of Ash and took her Buick sedan.
Officers pursued the Buick eastbound on I-90 at a high speed until it exited at Irving Park Road and crashed near the intersection with Lowell Avenue, Des Plaines and Chicago police said. The shootout with Des Plaines and Chicago police officers happened a short time later.
A 15-year-old Lane Tech High School student who worked as a student-intern at Upbeat, was shot in the arm and abdomen, and his condition was stabilized at Lurie Children’s Hospital, authorities said.
Chicago police said Wednesday that the boy was was “most likely” shot by an officer from Des Plaines. Riccio said the Des Plaines officer acted appropriately under the circumstances.