(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Video shows a retired Chicago police officer exchanging gunfire with a man trying to steal his neighbor’s car — something the cop says he never experienced before in his nearly six decades on the Austin block.
The retired officer, 72, said he happened to be near his window early Wednesday morning when he saw a person pointing two guns at his neighbor in the 300 block of North Mayfield Avenue.
“I grabbed my weapon and ran outside,” he told the Sun-Times. “And when I ran outside, I heard (the neighbor) was saying, ‘Don’t kill me.’ And I heard the fellow with the gun say, ‘No I’m gonna kill you.’”
The neighbor had been leaving for work when he noticed the window of his wife’s SUV had been smashed and someone was inside, according to police. He walked up and the man pulled a gun and demanded his wallet and the keys to his Jeep.
The retired officer stepped out onto his porch and sprinted to the end of his driveway, the video shows.
“He (the neighbor) saw me out of the corner of his eye and he knew that I was gonna help him out, and I told him to duck,” the retired officer said.
A “gun battle” followed, according to the retired officer, as he and the robber exchanged gunfire. A ShotSpotter detector recorded 17 shots.
The robber jumped into the Jeep but crashed nearby, in the 600 block of North Waller Avenue, according to police. He remains at large.
The retired officer was grazed in the left thumb and taken to a hospital in good condition, according to police. He said the gunman may also have been wounded.
Shell casings were found inside the Jeep and the neighbor’s wallet was found in a nearby yard. The neighbor was not hurt, according to police.
The retired officer said he has lived on the block since the 1960s and has never experienced anything like this.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “We’ve got a church, on the corner maybe three houses on one side of the block and maybe four on the other side, that’s it. Families on the block have been here for years… I mean many, 20 to 30 years.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson lives less than a mile away in Austin, he noted.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2023. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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