Charges expected against knife-wielding man shot by CPD officers in lobby of River North hotel on Monday

CHICAGO — The wanted, knife-wielding man shot by Chicago police officers Monday afternoon in the lobby of a River North hotel is expected to be charged.

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. Police have not said what he was wanted for. Officers ran after the man and chased him into the lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on East Hubbard St., according to investigators.

Detectives said officers tried to de-escalate the situation and deployed their tasers to try to subdue the man and take him into custody, but those efforts 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 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. Neither were reported to be injured.

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

‘Drop the knife!’

Witness Pedro Piori was on Wabash Ave., 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,” Piori said. “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.”

More witnesses said they saw the suspect wheeled out on a stretcher after the incident, which also affected guests staying at the hotel. It was shut down for several hours as police investigated. Some guests were re-booked at different hotels, and the shooting left others changing their afternoon plans.

Mark Schaeffer said he had just flown in to Chicago from Scottsdale, Ariz., and was arriving at the hotel to check in when the incident happened.

“I just got dropped off by my Uber driver. I was down visiting my family,” Schaeffer said. “Everyone was just running around. The ambulances were leaving. I asked a cop, he said it was a crime scene, somebody got shot.”

Schaeffer added that he was unable to check in, so he 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,” Schaeffer 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.