Chicago police on Saturday continued to investigate an officer-involved shooting of a 55-year-old woman fatally shot by officers in the North Center community Friday.
Officers shot the woman around 6 p.m. in the 3900 block of North Western Avenue near a CVS Pharmacy store where she was reportedly destroying items, prompting a call to authorities.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said investigators were looking at the possibility that she was trying to force officers to shoot her — a phenomenon known as “suicide-by-cop.” But police also were looking into whether the woman suffered from any psychiatric problems, noting that officers twice used a Taser on the woman to no effect.
“Right now, it’s just too soon to tell,” Guglielmi said.
A report in a 2014 FBI Law Bulletin describes suicide by cop as “a situation where individuals deliberately place themselves or others at grave risk in a manner that compels the use of deadly force by police officers.”
These incidents are common, according to law enforcement, but difficult to classify, as some perpetrators are killed before their true intentions are known. Across the country this past week alone, were reports of at least three attempted suicides by cops, including a California man fatally shot after he threw a knife at California Highway Patrol officers in Santa Monica.
Woman dies after being shot by Chicago police near CVS Jeremy Gorner and Rosemary Regina Sobol
A woman has died after she was shot by a Chicago police officer in the North Center community Friday night on the North Side.
It happened in the 3900 block of North Western Avenue near a CVS Pharmacy store, police and other officials said.
Shortly before 6 p.m., officers responded to a call of…
A woman has died after she was shot by a Chicago police officer in the North Center community Friday night on the North Side.
It happened in the 3900 block of North Western Avenue near a CVS Pharmacy store, police and other officials said.
Shortly before 6 p.m., officers responded to a call of…
(Jeremy Gorner and Rosemary Regina Sobol)
The woman was outside the pharmacy when officers arrived, Guglielmi said. She walked toward the officers, both assigned to the Town Hall patrol district, and they saw that she was armed with "what appeared to be a knife," he said.
He said the woman "made some threatening statements," and the officers tried to calm her down. It is possible she may have been intentionally trying to goad the officers into shooting her, officials said.
She continued to walk toward the officers, before they deployed a Taser on her twice, Guglielmi said.
"That had no effect," he said. "She continued to advance after that, making threatening statements toward the officers, and the officers discharged their service weapons."
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the woman as Michelle Robey, of the 5600 block of North Spaulding Avenue in the small Hollywood Park neighborhood on the North Side. Spaulding was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.
Darryl Dixon, 55, said he saw the woman lunge at one of the officers.
"She was yelling … ‘I got a knife! I will cut you! Get back! I will cut you! I’m not playing!’" he said.
Another witness said that, as he was driving in the area, he had to stop suddenly when he turned onto Western because he encountered a woman standing in a brick crosswalk, flanked by two police officers.
He said she was wearing a dark-colored puffy down coat, baggy pants and a stocking cap and was holding a fountain drink. The woman did not appear to be doing anything aggressive and there was no physical contact between her and the male and female officers, the witness said.
As the uniformed officers stood near her, the male officer screamed multiple times, "Drop it!" or "Stop it!" the witness said.
The women then turned toward the female officer and he heard, "Pow, pow!" The woman dropped her drink and collapsed on the street falling on her right side. "She didn’t move again," he said.
Her eyes remained open, but she was motionless as the male officer kicked a dark-colored object toward the curb, he said.
The witness said he did not see the officer’s gun when he fired and he noticed a Taser on the ground nearby.
Within moments, the area was swarming with dozens of police officers and at least one helicopter.
"This happened so quickly," he said. "I’m shaken up."
Rosemary Regina Sobol contributed reporting.
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