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Charges were pending for the wounded suspect, who apparently fled to the Blue Line’s Washington stop after the morning shooting in the first block of South State Street.
A Brinks armored car guard shot an alleged robber who grabbed his money bag and fled in the heart of the city’s Loop late Wednesday morning, Chicago police said.
The shooting caused a Chicago Public Schools Board of Education meeting to be placed on soft lockdown.
The shooting unfolded around 11:20 a.m., when a guard was leaving a business in the first block of South State Street and was “approached by an offender who attempted to forcefully take property,” according to a Chicago police statement.
The guard and the offender struggled, and the guard shot the man, who then “fled the scene with proceeds but was taken into custody a short time later,” according to police.
The offender suffered gunshot wounds to his body and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his condition had stabilized, police said.
No one else was injured, and charges were pending, police said.
Paramedics responded sometime after 11 a.m. and found a man shot, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Merritt.
“Caller heard five gunshots in the area,” a dispatcher announced on the police scanner as the situation began.
A responding Central District police officer told the dispatcher that a Brinks guard began shooting after the alleged robber started punching him in the face and that he “took a bag with money.”
The officer said the shooting happened in front of Saks Off 5th at 6 S. State St.
A few minutes later, the dispatcher came over the air again saying that she was getting “multiple calls” of a person shot at the Blue Line at the mezzanine level, at Washington and Madison.
An officer confirmed that a man had been shot in his arm.
“Roll an ambulance,” the officer said.
The shooting affected service on several CTA bus routes and the Blue Line, which temporarily bypassed the Washington station.
About 1:30 p.m., police tape cordoned off State Street between Madison and Monroe streets. More tape blocked off the entrance to CPS headquarters at 42 W. Madison St., where a Brinks bag was on the sidewalk near blood stains.
Tyler W., and another man were sitting on a sidewalk drawing on sketchbooks outside the Target at 1 S. State St., when they said they heard, “a loud noise, what we thought was a tire blowing up or something.”
“And then about maybe 30-45 seconds later, we heard two more gunshots and that was it,” said Tyler W., 41, who declined to give his full last name.
He and the other man immediately dropped to the ground for cover, he said. Although they were facing the Brinks truck from across the street, they never saw a shooter or the robber.
“We didn’t see him running or anything like that. We just heard the loud noise and then dropped,” he said.
Sherry Kinigbe, 38, of Rogers Park, was walking in the area with her teenage daughter and was shocked to hear that a shooting had occurred.
“I think it’s terrible,” Kinigbe said. “In broad daylight, it’s terrible. I mean, people are coming down here to work, shop, etc.”
Kinigbe said she used to take her daughter Downtown “on a weekly basis, maybe twice.” Now, she’s barely Downtown with her because “things have definitely changed” and she fears more for their safety, she said.
“It’s nice, it’s beautiful. It’s just the negative people that come down,” Kinigbe said of the Loop.
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