Chicago police are searching for a man suspected of shooting and injuring a police officer on Saturday, as well as shooting a woman in the back in broad daylight on Wednesday, officials said.
Chicago Police
✔@Chicago_Police
Michael Blackman, 45, is wanted related to this morning’s shooting of a Chicago Police Officer. This offender is also the alleged suspect from Wednesday’s shooting on the 200 block of N Milwaukee.
Dial 911 if you see this wanted offender or send tips to http://CPDtip.com .
The suspect, 45-year-old Michael Blackman, managed to flee the scenes of both shootings and should be considered “armed and dangerous,” Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Anthony Guglielmi
✔@AJGuglielmi
The officer is completing surgery and is in stable condition. Offender has fled and is considered armed and dangerous. Police units @USMarshalsHQ @ATF_Chicago are responding to and scene searching for gunman.
Anthony Guglielmi
✔@AJGuglielmi
The alleged suspect in this police shooting is Michael Blackman. The suspected gunman from the shooting in 200 BLK of N. MILWAUKEE. Consider him armed and dangerous.
The injured officer, who has not been identified, was shot and wounded at around 8:40 a.m. while serving a warrant on the city’s South Side. He is 40 years old and a 16-year veteran of the Chicago police force in the fugitive apprehension team, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a news conference at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Doctors said the officer was shot once in the groin and twice in his lower left leg. According to Guglielmi, the officer lost nearly a third of his blood despite applying a tourniquet on himself. The officer underwent surgery and was listed in stable condition.
Anthony Guglielmi
✔@AJGuglielmi
MEDIA HELICOPTERS: Please vacate area by 65th street to make way for police helicopters to assist with investigation and apprehension.
Anthony Guglielmi
✔@AJGuglielmi
Doctors say the officer lost nearly a third of his blood following a groin injury. The officer was able to apply a tourniquet thanks to @CPDpolicefdtn for raising funds to equip these officers with life saving tools.
“He came basically bleeding to death,” said Jane Kayle Lee, the trauma surgeon who operated on the officer for about 2 hours. “He had already lost a significant amount of blood.”
Blackman is accused of shooting a 29-year-old woman while he was riding a bicycle in the Fulton River District on Wednesday, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told Fox 32 Chicago. The woman was shot in the back but is expected to survive, he said.
On Friday, police released surveillance video from a bicycle shop showing Blackman at the counter getting a flat tire fixed just minutes before Wednesday’s shooting.
Fox 32 Chicago reported that the fugitive apprehension team was trying to arrest Blackman when the shooting took place at around 8:40 a.m. After officers knocked on the door, Blackman ran out the back of the home and shot the officer.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked Chicagoans to pray for the officer and his family, as well as all first responders and law enforcement officials “who work day and night to protect our residents.”
“We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates,” she said.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot
✔@chicagosmayor
I ask all Chicagoans to join me in praying for the officer shot earlier today and his family, and for the continued safety of our first responders and law enforcement who work day and night to protect our residents. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates.
In a separate incident, two other officers were injured after responding to a call about a man with a gun inside of a South Side restaurant shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday. After the officers patted down the man and found his gun, he pushed past them, ran outside, got into a vehicle and drove off, dragging both officers before getting away.
The two officers were hospitalized with abrasions, contusions, internal injuries and possible bone fractures. Their names and the name of the driver, if police know it, haven’t been released.