Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle spoke briefly Wednesday about a “violent incident” last month involving a security detail opening fire during a confrontation outside her Hyde Park home — her first public remarks on the incident since the night in question unfolded more than a week ago.
In an unrelated call with reporters, Preckwinkle said she “can confirm that there was a violent incident” with a member of her security detail who was sitting in his police vehicle stationed in front of her house, and that she was inside and heard gunshots.
Neither Preckwinkle nor the security detail were wounded, and the officer has returned to work, she said.
Cook County Board Toni Preckwinkle walks her dog in her neighborhood last year. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
“I think this incident underscores how close to home the violence is,” Preckwinkle said. “There’s been an uptick of crime in my own neighborhood. … But as I said, it’s an ongoing investigation, and that’s all I can share at this time.”
The Sept. 27 incident happened a few blocks from the Kenwood home of Barack and Michelle Obama, while the former president and first lady were in Chicago for the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Center the following day.
Cook County Forest Preserve District spokesman Carl Vogel confirmed to the Tribune Thursday morning that an on-duty officer fired shots at a man attempting to carjack him about 8:30 p.m. He deferred further questions to Chicago police.
The encounter involving an officer from the Forest Preserves police, which handles Preckwinkle’s security detail, was first reported Wednesday by CWB Chicago, hours before Preckwinkle addressed the media.
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When asked whether the county should have notified the public sooner about an officer reportedly discharging his weapon, Preckwinkle responded: “Well, first of all, let me point out that this is an ongoing investigation, and a police report was filed. That was sufficient. I’m just grateful that he wasn’t hurt. Given the circumstances, it could have had a quite different outcome.”
Preckwinkle also noted that “this is the Chicago Police Department’s investigation.” Officials with Chicago police and the Forest Preserves police did not respond to questions on which agency should have initially alerted the public about the reported shots fired by a county officer.
Chicago police spokeswoman Officer Michelle Tannehill confirmed Wednesday evening that a 57-year-old man was threatened during an attempted carjacking. That event was labeled in police records an “aggravated assault of a police officer” by an “offender armed with a handgun.”
Tannehill said an armed person tried to take the man’s Ford vehicle as he sat inside it. The would-be carjacker then fled the scene, she said, adding that there were no injuries reported at the time, and no arrests have been made.
ayin@chicagotribune.com
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