Chicago police officer shot, hospitalized; suspect dead

CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago police say an officer is expected to survive after being shot in the leg by a man who was killed when officers returned fire.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told reporters late Thursday that the officer and his partner were on bike patrol on the near South Side Thursday night when a person told them about a man acting “erratically.”

The officers approached a man talking on a cellphone and asked to speak with him. Johnson says the man pulled a gun out of a backpack and opened fire. He says both officers returned fire, killing the suspect.

One officer was struck in the thigh. He was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening.

Johnson said the incident was “another example of too many guns” and “too many people willing to use them.”