Man arrested in the fatal shooting of Chicago police officer during a traffic stop
CHICAGO (AP) — 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.
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.
“This individual should not have been on our streets with a fully automatic weapon,” Snelling said, adding that handguns converted to fire at full automatic puts officers at a disadvantage.
“Our officers were doing every single thing that they could to stop this from escalating into something else,” Snelling said. “As a result of the weapon that this individual had, our officers were outgunned. They’re converting these handguns into hand-held machine guns, and the possibility of killing a person becomes greater. The possibility of shooting more people at once becomes much higher.”
Martinez, 26, was approaching his three-year anniversary with the police department.
“Officer Martinez was killed by the violence he worked to stop,” Snelling continued. “We need to be outraged at the proliferation of guns that are killing our residents, our children and our first responders.”
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting.