Gunman who shot CPD officer still at large; no bond for co- defendants
Chicago Police still are looking for the gunman who shot a female officer Friday during a harrowing foot chase following an attempted robbery of a Back of the Yards cellphone store.
On Monday, two men charged in the botched heist and the ensuing shootout were ordered held without bail, but Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Jennifer Bagby said that a third suspect, who fired the shot that struck the officer in the leg, remained at large.
Donzell Grant, 20, and Cortez Harrington, 24, nodded to a small contingent of family members as sheriff’s deputies led them out of their bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
Bagby said that Grant and the unnamed man entered a T- Mobile store in a mall at 43rd Street and South Ashland Avenue, around 1: 30 p. m., and marched four store employees to the back of the store at gunpoint, bound them with zip- ties and demanded the combination to a store safe.
Harrington, the getaway driver, waited in a nearby alley, behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger, Bagby said.
After the two armed men burst in, a female customer managed to run out and call police. A store employee who was eating lunch also slipped out a back door and called 911, Bagby said. After the gunmen demanded the combination to a store safe, they emptied out a stash of iPhones inside.
As the armed pair headed for the front door with the phones in a sack, they saw two 9th District officers arriving in a marked squad car, Bagby said.
The two men ran out the back, then circled from the alley to the front of the strip mall. As they sprinted across Ashland, the two officers gave chase on foot. Both men turned and pointed their guns at the officers, and police believe the unnamed gunman fired and struck one of the officers in the left knee. The female officer, who has been on the force for two years, fired twice at the fleeing men, and hermale partner continued to give chase as they ran south on Marshfield.
The two gunmen reached Harrington’s car and climbed in, then apparently thought better of it, jumping out and sprinting away down a gangway, again stopping to fire at the pursuing officer, Bagby said. The two split up, with the officer still tailing Grant as Grant sprinted down a gangway and climbed a fence, snagging his pants.
Meanwhile, the other gunman ran down an alley and stole a minivan at gunpoint. The officer, unable to scale the fence, ran down another gangway and spotted the van as it pulled forward, then backed into Grant and pinned him against the door of a garage. As the minivan pulled away, the driver fired at the officer, who recognized that gunman behind the wheel, Bagby said. Grant crawled into the garage, where he was arrested by late- arriving officers.
Harrington was arrested later by police, who found his Charger parked in front of a fire hydrant a few blocks away on Marshfield, after a woman who said she’d almost been run over by the car flagged down officers. Harrington approached officers at his car, and admitted the car was his, Bagby said.
Beside the female officer, no one else was injured in the incident, authorities said.