Police officer, gunman and 2 others dead after Chicago hospital attack

CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer and two other people were killed in an attack at a South Side hospital Monday afternoon that sent medical personnel and police scrambling through stairwells and even the nursery in search of victims and the shooter before he was found dead.

Officer Samuel Jimenez, on the force since early 2017, was found in the lobby of Mercy Hospital & Medical Center on South Michigan Avenue around 3:20 p.m. CST, a police spokesman said.

The suspect, apparently shot in the head, was also found inside the hospital, as was a third person. The fourth person, apparently the gunman’s girlfriend, had been repeatedly shot outside.

The shooting began after the gunman confronted his girlfriend outside the hospital in Bronzeville, possibly over a “broken engagement,” sources said. The gunman shot the woman at least three times, then stood over her and fired some more, witnesses said. He then ran inside where he shot the officer and another person. The gunman fired at other officers, and a bullet struck the holster of one of them, burrowing into the side of his gun, sources said. A fragment of the bullet fell into his pocket.

It was not known how the gunman was shot.

James Gray said he saw at least two people get shot. Gray said he was coming out of the clinic area when he saw a man in a black coat, black hat and dark pants shoot a woman three times in the chest. The man and the woman had been walking and talking to each other before the shooting, he said. The gunman stood over the woman and shot her three more times after she fell to the ground, Gray said. Then a squad car turned its lights on and came down the drive and the gunman shot at the squad car.

“It was chaos,” Gray said. “It was just mass chaos.”

Gray said the gun looked like a 9 mm handgun; a police source said authorities had identified it as a 9 mm.

When the gunman came into the hospital, it appeared that he was shooting people at random, said Gray, who saw one other person shot.

“And then I ran into the Xray department and locked the door behind us,” he said.

“I thought it was unbelievable,” said Gray. “It’s like a movie scene. Nothing like that ever happened to me before.”

Hector Avitia was watching television in a waiting room at the hospital with his wife when the woman was shot. Avitia watched through windows as a person in blue scrubs was shot outside and fell to the ground, he said. Officers exchanged fire with the shooter, and the shooter reloaded and fired again at the victim on the ground, Avitia said. The shooter then made his way inside the hospital as Avitia and those with him hid by a desk.