CHICAGO—A 23-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Chicago police officer during a traffic stop on the city’s Southside.
The man is scheduled to appear Thursday in court and also faces a separate first-degree murder charge, attempted murder of a police officer, residential burglary, and weapons violations, Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters Wednesday.
Officer Enrique Martinez was shot about 8 p.m. Monday after he and other officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that was blocking traffic. As Martinez and his partner were speaking with the driver, a man in the front passenger seat was seen reaching for a bag on the floor, Chief of Detectives Antoinette Ursitti said.
The officers ordered him to stop, but the man pulled a handgun—equipped with a machine gun-conversion device and an extended magazine—and fired at Martinez, striking the officer and the driver, Ursitti said.
The man then pushed the driver from the vehicle and drove off, dragging another officer a short distance. After crashing into a parked car, he ran into an apartment, grabbed a knife, and cut off a court-ordered electronic monitor. A woman inside the apartment was not harmed.
He was caught a short time later after running from the apartment.
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Martinez was pronounced dead at a hospital. The driver of the vehicle also died.
Authorities said they later found the converted handgun and another gun. A third man who was in the rear seat of the vehicle also was arrested, but released after investigators determined he was not involved in the shooting, Ursitti said.
Ursitti said the suspected shooter was on release from jail as a condition of a prior arrest for attempting to defraud a drug and alcohol screening test.
“Our officers were doing every single thing that they could to stop this from escalating into something else,” Snelling said.
Martinez, 26, was approaching his three-year anniversary with the police department.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting.
