Police Shooting

Second police-involved shooting of the New Year:

• A Chicago police officer deployed a Taser twice and then another shot a robbery suspect who lunged toward an officer while brandishing a large knife Saturday afternoon outside a South Shore neighborhood pizzeria, police said.
  
  Officers responded to a call just after 3:15 p.m. of a man wanted for a robbery that had occurred in the 2600 block of East 79th Street, Chief of Patrol Fred Waller told reporters during a news conference near the scene. Officers spoke to a robbery victim who gave them a description of the person responsible and the direction he left. Officers went to that area and saw a man who fit the description of the suspect near 79th Street and Marquette Avenue, outside a pizzeria, Waller said.
  
  He was holding a large knife, described as about 8 to 10 inches long, when he was confronted by police. An officer told him to drop the knife, but he advanced toward the officers, who continued to instruct him to drop the knife, Waller said. A female officer then deployed her Taser twice. The Taser had no effect on the man, Waller said. A male officer then fired three times, and Waller said he believes the man was struck twice in the chest.

Officers attempted to use less-than-lethal methods and when that didn't work, properly took action to eliminate the threat to their lives and the lives of anyone else who may have run across the knife-wielding assailant. Excellent job all around.