Man who fired on officers fatally shot

SOUTH ELGIN, Ill. — Police fatally shot a suburban Chicago man early Wednesday after he opened fire on officers, wounding three, during an overnight standoff.

South Elgin police Sgt. Mike Doty said 52-year-old Frank Dripps fired a shotgun at officers as they responded to a call of shots fired at a condominium building about 40 miles northwest of Chicago late Tuesday. Doty said three officers were hit by gunfire, describing their injuries as not life-threatening. He said officers didn’t return fire.

About a dozen area police departments and two SWAT teams responded to the scene and set up a perimeter around the building, while nearby residents were evacuated from their homes, Doty said.

He said Dripps barricaded himself inside a stairwell and was yelling that “he would shoot officers if they came at him.”

Dripps had a rifle with a scope in addition to the shotgun, and he raised the weapons to his shoulder “off and on” during the four-hour standoff. He fired again around 2:30 a.m. and was shot by an officer, Doty said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dripps and his wife began renting the condo in the building a few months ago, the son of the condo’s owner said. Matthew Horne told The (Elgin) Courier that Dripps asked residents of the building to take care of his wife before the standoff began.

“He said a bunch of weird stuff … and then went into his room and came out with the guns,” Horne said.