CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Cook County commissioner said Board President Toni Preckwinkle needs to be more upfront about a shooting incident two weeks ago involving a member of her security team outside her Hyde Park home.
It has now been reported that a security detail exchanged gunfire with a carjacker outside the Hyde Park home of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle last week, but neither she nor other officials would release details of the attack Thursday, including whether the robber was shot.
The 911 tape indicates that on Sept. 27 a member of Preckwinkle's security detail fired shots at someone who tried to carjack him outside Preckwinkle's Hyde Park home.
“They were trying to take his car, and he’s the one who shot at them, but he doesn’t know if he got any of them,” a dispatcher said on Sept. 27, the night the attempted carjacking happened on the same Hyde Park block where Preckwinkle lives.
The incident was not acknowledged by Chicago police or county officials until this week after the incident was reported by CWB Chicago. Commissioner Sean Morrison told CBS 2 Preckwinkle should have notified commissioners.
"Was this intentionally withheld? Was this information, this incident intentionally withheld?" Morrison said.
"What really has me upset is that this happened last month and no one was notified, no one was told."
The county board president was asked about it Thursday.
"I can confirm that there was a violent incident two weeks ago. A member of my security detail was sitting outside my home in his police vehicle. I think this incident underscores how close to home the violence is," Preckwinkle said.
She said she heard the shots, and added that there was a police report and the investigation is ongoing.
"This is an ongoing investigation. A police report was filed. A determination was that was sufficient. I am just grateful that he wasn't hurt. Given the circumstances, we could've had a quite different outcome," Preckwinkle said.
According to the Sun-Times, a Forest Preserves police officer was stationed outside Preckwinkle’s home on the 5100 block of South Kimbark Avenue when he “fired shots during an attempted carjacking” around 8:30 p.m., the Forest Preserves District said in a brief statement Thursday.
“The officer is a member of President Preckwinkle’s executive protection detail,” it added. “For security reasons, we do not disclose any of the operational procedures of the detail.”
A few more details were released around the same time Thursday by Chicago police, but it declined to identify the person involved as a police officer. And it said nothing about shots being fired.
The department only said that a “57 year old male” was sitting in his car “when he was approached by an armed offender on foot who attempted to take the victim’s vehicle.
“The offender then fled the scene,” it added. “No injuries were reported at the time of the incident.”
The incident was not reported at the time on the department’s major incident log that is continually updated with major crimes in the city, including carjackings.
But around the time of the attempted carjacking, the log reported that an 18-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the left knee nearly three miles south, at the far end of Jackson Park.
CWB reported that police were looking into whether he may have been shot by the county officer. Neither police nor the Forest Preserves District would comment.
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(WBBM Newsradio and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this copy.)