Update: CPD has released the name of the 29 year-old officer who was fatally shot in the line of duty last night. Ella French, who joined the force in 2018, was shot in the head in the West Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. CPD posted the following on its Facebook page minutes ago
Police Officer Ella French
End of Watch: August 7, 2021
We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others.
Please hold her family, loved ones and fellow Chicago Police officers in your thoughts as we grieve the loss of this hero.
Please also pray for her wounded partner, who is in the hospital fighting for his life. We’re asking for everyone to lift this officer and his family as we pray for his recovery.
A Chicago police officer was fatally shot and another wounded Saturday evening in an exchange of gunfire during a traffic stop, according to the Chicago Police Department and multiple reports.
The two officers were fired upon after they pulled over a vehicle carrying two men and a woman just after 9 p.m. in the South Side neighborhood of West Englewood, according to police.
The officers returned fire and, according to first deputy superintendent Eric Carter, one of the people in the vehicle also was wounded. That person’s condition is currently not available.
Carter described the wounded second officer as “fighting for his very life” at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The officer killed during the incident was a 29 year-old female whose name has been withheld at the request of the officer’s mother. She had three years of service with CPD. No further information is available about her male partner, other than that he had six years of service.
All three suspects in the incident are currently in custody. They have not been charged.
38 police officers have been shot at or shot so far in 2021. 11 have been hit. This is the first fatality.
Here’s this afternoon’s press conference with CPD Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.