CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — An off-duty Chicago police officer was shot and killed Saturday morning on the South Side. The officer has been identified as 24-year-old Areanah Preston, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
It happened at about 1:45 a.m. on the 8100 block of South Blackstone Avenue. Interim police Supt. Eric Carter said officers responded to a report of shots fired.
“They found one of our own suffering gunshot wounds,” said Carter. “The officer picked our officer up, put her in the back of a squad car and immediately brought her to University of Chicago Hospital, where she succumbed to her wounds.”
Carter said the exact circumstances of the shooting are unclear.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke outside the hospital.
“I had an opportunity to speak with the family of this officer, who, as you might imagine, is completely shattered," Lightfoot said. "No mother wants to wake up to the tragic news that their child is dead.”
The officer had been on the job for three years. Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern said she had just finished her shift when she was killed.
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