Pubdate: Tue, 28 Dec 1999
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 1999 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/index/
Author: Lorraine Forte, Staff Reporter

19-YEAR-OLD SHOT, KILLED AFTER COP ALLEGEDLY TACKLED

A 19-year-old man was shot and killed late Monday when he and several other
alleged drug dealers tackled a Chicago police officer and caused his gun to
fire accidentally, authorities said.

The man, whom police did not identify, was one of a group of five to six
alleged dealers who tackled the officer as he was coming down a stairwell
of a public housing high-rise at 4022 S. State, said police spokeswoman
Lauri Sanders.

Fourteen rocks of crack cocaine and $195 were discovered on the man's body,
Sanders said. He was struck in the head with a single bullet and pronounced
dead at Cook County Hospital.

The other men were being questioned by Area 1 police detectives late Monday.

The Stateway Gardens building is not one of the high-rises slated to be
torn down in the CHA's sweeping demolition program, an agency spokeswoman
said.

The incident took place about 6:30 p.m., when the officer and his partner -
both plainclothes tactical officers - were investigating complaints of drug
dealing in the building's third-floor stairwell, Sanders said.

As one officer descended to the landing between the third and fourth
floors, Sanders said, he heard several voices yelling "clean it up, clean
it up."

The officer yelled "Police," drew his gun, and was tackled by five or six
men as he came around the stairwell corner onto the landing, Sanders said.

The men pushed the officer into the wall of the building, and his gun fired
when his arm struck the wall, she said.

Neither officer was injured. The officer's partner was coming up from the
ground floor when the incident occurred.

The Chicago Police Department took over patrols of CHA developments when
the CHA's own 270-member force was disbanded at the end of October. With a
federal grant, the department is hiring 375 new officers to patrol public
housing.
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