A 29-year-old female Chicago police officer was killed and another was seriously wounded during an armed confrontation with three suspects on the city's South Side.
The two officers were fired upon after a vehicle carrying two men and a woman had been pulled over at 9pm, said Eric Carter, Chicago police first deputy superintendent, at a news conference early Sunday.
The officers returned fire, and one of the people in the vehicle was also wounded.
The wounded suspect was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, and their condition was unknown.
Two suspects were taken into custody and the third, a woman, is on the run, according to police.
A female Chicago PD officer was killed and another was seriously wounded during an armed confrontation with a suspect on the city's South Side.
Dozens of officers arrived outside the University of Chicago Medical Center to pay their respects to the killed officer and her injured colleague amid the ongoing explosion of gun violence in the city.
She had joined the force in 2018 and was a member of the community safety team, a citywide unit formed last summer under police Superintendent David Brown to respond to crime hotspots.
The other officer was 'fighting for his very life,' Carter said.
He asked Chicagoans to pray for officers as they risk their lives daily.
'They go out here and do their jobs thanklessly,' he said.
'They do it without asking for anything. They do it because it's something that's a higher calling for them. And they do it because it's the right thing to do.'
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, speaking outside the hospital, said: 'The officer who succumbed to her injuries was very young on the job, but incredibly enthusiastic to do the work.'
Lightfoot encouraged people to never forget the sacrifices officers make.
'This is a very tragic and sad day for our city, and pray for officers the men and women of this department,' the mayor said.
'They deserve our prayers every single day that they can return home safely to their families, unfortunately that didn't happen tonight.'
The officer was the first member of Chicago police department to be shot and killed in the line of duty since Lightfoot became mayor in 2019.
Last year, the deaths of four other Chicago officers who succumbed to COVID-19 were also considered by the police department to be in the line of duty.
The last line-of-duty deaths of Chicago officers who were killed while pursuing a suspect were in December 2018, when Officers Eduardo Marmolejo and Conrad Gary were fatally struck by a train as they looked for a suspect wanted for illegally possessing a gun.
That suspect, Edward Brown, was sentenced this past April to a year in prison for a felony weapon violation in the case.
November 2018 saw the last fatal shooting of a Chicago officer, Samuel Jimenez, 28.
In February 2018 Commander Paul Bauer, 53, was shot and killed, while arresting a suspect.
He had served with the Chicago Police Department for 32 years and served as commander of the 018th District.
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