Police shoot teen near Cabrini-Green The Follow Up Story

[Pedro56]

Police shoot teen near Cabrini-Green

August 8, 2006

BY LISA DONOVAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters


Police shot and critically wounded a 14-year-old suspected thief who they said pulled a gun on them Monday afternoon near the Cabrini-Green public housing complex.


At first glance, the gun -- as well as a second weapon allegedly carried by an accomplice -- looked to be a high-powered .45-caliber handgun, police said.

After examining both weapons later on, police determined they were pellet guns that "appeared to be real guns," said Monique Bond, a Chicago Police spokeswoman. The officers shot because they feared for their lives.

Still, anger over the shooting lingered late into the night in Cabrini-Green and outside Children's Memorial Hospital, where the wounded teen, Ellis Woodland, was in critical condition.

Father lashes out at police



The boy's father, also named Ellis Woodland, lashed out at police outside the emergency room door, where he stood with about two dozen relatives and friends. Officers patrolling the scene clearly could overhear him.

"The police harassed me every day, every day. And now it's got to the point where they were harassing my son," said Woodland. "I didn't raise my son to be like me. I didn't raise him to get shot down like a dog."

March past police station

Back at the Cabrini complex, where the Woodland family lives in the 1000 block of North Larrabee, residents also were outraged. Young people, many who looked to be in their early teens, marched past the nearby 18th District police station late Monday, shouting obscenities and things like "You need to tell us why you shot him."

Officers clustered in front of a station driveway to keep the crowd from getting too close.

Police said the shooting incident unfolded just after 5 p.m., when a squad car heading east on Division, near Sedgwick, was flagged down by a passerby. That witness pointed to a youth on the sidewalk and said "he just tried to rob me," police spokesman Pat Camden said.

A sergeant then saw Woodland run behind a nearby Blockbuster Video store, Camden said.

Stopped on Division Street

Officers in another patrol car then spotted the teen and followed him as he crossed Division Street, near Clybourn.

"They shouted, 'Stop, police!'" Camden said. "[The teen's] got his hands in his pockets. He comes out with the gun [and] he's shot by the officers. He's hit several times."

Rumors about the shooting flew through the Cabrini complex. Some people said the teens were unarmed, while others said the kids were running from gang members.

agolab@suntimes.com

ldonovan@suntimes.com

[deputy29]

Since they now make toy guns to look like real guns how can an officer tell the difference in the dark? Also with the father's statement " I didn't raise him to be like me". makes me wonder what type of a role model the father is.

[conalabu]

Exactly what I was thinking, deputy. C'mon now, if you were raising your kid not to be like you, why is the kid out there with the pellet gun in his pocket? He was shooting tin cans, right?