CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Detectives were questioning two people of interest in the shooting that left 23-year-old off-duty police officer John P. Rivera dead, but authorities are still searching for at least one more person — possibly the shooter — who remains at large Sunday.
Chicago police declined to disclose any information about the people of interest, including their ages, saying they have not been formally classified as suspects yet.
“What we know about this incident so far is just really disgusting,” Supt. Eddie Johnson said Saturday at Chicago police headquarters. “Mark my words: we will find them.”
Rivera, a Gresham District patrolman who would have marked two years on the force in May, went to a popular nightlife district with a fellow male officer after they finished their Friday night shift, Johnson said.
Surveillance video showed the shooter’s group targeted the off-duty officers’ car. Johnson said the shooting “appears to be random.”
Nothing was taken from the people in the car, and police said the two groups didn’t seem to have encountered each other earlier in the night.
“This appears to be an unprovoked attack against a group of individuals who went out to unwind on a Friday night,” he said.
Officers on patrol nearby heard the gunfire, saw people running and responded within seconds, police said. They immediately stopped two people, one of whom was released soon after.
Rivera, a Hegewisch resident, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds to the chest, arm and mouth, authorities said. He was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.
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The 23-year-old man sitting behind Rivera in the car, who is not an officer, was shot in the chest and arms, police said. He was in critical “but stable” condition, and he underwent surgery Saturday morning.
The other off-duty officer and woman in the car were not hurt, police said.
Detectives were still poring through hours of video from the area of the shooting, which is awash with surveillance cameras.
The shooting marks the latest tragedy for a police department that has endured the deaths of four on-duty officers and at least six officer suicides since the start of last year.