Knife-wielding man shot by CPD officers lobby of River North hotel

CHICAGO – Chicago police officers shot and injured a knife-wielding man inside the lobby of a River North hotel Monday afternoon.

Chicago police said the incident happened just before 2:30 p.m. Monday in the 0-100 block of East Hubbard Street near State Street and Wabash Avenue.

Officers spotted a wanted man armed with a knife and the man tried to run away when officers saw him. Officers ran after the man and chased him into the lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on East Hubbard Street, according to investigators.

Detectives said officers tried to de-escalate the situation and deployed their tasers to try and subdue the man and taken him into custody, but were unsuccessful. The suspect continued to ignore the officers’ commands and eventually turned toward them while still holding the knife.

Two officers then fired their weapons, hitting the suspect in the upper body. Officers then rendered aid to the suspect, who was critically injured, before an ambulance arrived and took him to Northwestern Hospital, according to officials.

Police said a weapon was recovered at the scene and two officers were taken to a nearby hospital for observation.

One witness was on Wabash Avenue and was walking down the stairs to Wells Street to catch the bus when he came upon the scene and saw officers with tasers drawn, chasing the man inside the hotel.

“I heard, ‘Drop the Knife! Drop the knife!’ multiple times. I was 10 feet away from him, very close. Then the guy ran inside the hotel lobby. All the cops flew after him. They continued to say, ‘Drop the knife!’ I heard a taser gun going off, 30 seconds later, four, five shots,” witness Pedro Piori said.

WGN-TV arrived at the scene and found a heavy police presence.

More witnesses said they saw the suspect wheeled out on a stretcher after the incident.

The incident also affected guests staying at the hotel. One man said he just flew in to Chicago and was arriving at the hotel to check in when the incident happened.

“I’m from Scottsdale, Arizona and I just got dropped off by my Uber driver. I was down visiting my family. Everyone was just running around. The ambulances were leaving. I asked a cop, he said it was a crime scene, somebody got shot,” Mark Shaeffer said.

Schaeffer added he was unable to check in, made some phone calls and got his reservation transferred to the Marriott on the Magnificent Mile.

“I actually feel very fortunate I wasn’t there when it happened, and more fortunate that I’m not a guest of the hotel. I have options to go somewhere else,” he said.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) is investigating the incident and the officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for a minimum of 30 days.

No other information was released.