A Chicago police officer was run over by a woman who stole his squad car Monday morning, moments after the officer responded to a call of gunfire and found her lying naked on a street in West Garfield Park, according to police.
The woman, 34, drove the stolen squad car onto the expressway and crashed near Stroger Hospital, where she was arrested, according to police. The officer was being treated for injuries to his legs and a laceration to his head, CPD Superintendent David Brown told reporters Monday.
The officer was released from the hospital, police said.
The incident began as officers responded call of gunfire and found the nude woman, police said in a statement. Brown said the officer found the “woman laying in the street unclothed.”
As an officer tried to help her and find out why she was lying in the street, “she charged at the officer, assaulted the officer, got in his squad car” and ran over the officer.
In their statement, police said the officer was “eventually dragged from the vehicle.” She then “drove off, had an accident” and was arrested, Brown said.
Paramedics responded to the injured officer at Jackson Boulevard and Kostner Avenue around 9:40 a.m., Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said.
The officer was taken to Stroger Hospital, Merritt said.
“The officer was run over by this woman — legs received some type of injuries as well as a laceration to the head,” Brown said. “The officer is in the hospital being treated as we speak. We’ll get more updates as we learn more. We don’t know why the woman was laying in the street unclothed,” he said.
According to unconfirmed police radio traffic, a dispatcher told police the woman was armed and had driven onto the Eisenhower Expressway. A police officer radioed that the woman had side-swiped five cars on Harrison Street at Damen, not far from Stroger Hospital.
She was arrested and taken to a hospital for a psychological evaluation, according to radio traffic. Police said charges were pending.
