Chicago police shoot two teens to death after they refuse to drop their guns

     
      By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Two teens were shot to death by Chicago police in two separate incidents on Sunday after they refused to drop their guns and pointed them at officers, police and a police union spokesman said on Monday.

In the first incident, gang enforcement officers responded to a complaint of armed men on a west side block. When officers arrived, one of the men fled into a passageway and drew a handgun from his waistband, police said in a statement.

The suspect, 19, ran up a back staircase of a building, according to police union spokesman Pat Camden. An officer ordered the man to drop his gun, but he pointed it in the officer’s direction, and the officer shot him, police said.



In the second incident, there was an exchange of gunfire on a south side street, and when police arrived, one of the suspects pointed his gun at them. Police ordered him to drop his gun, and when he refused to comply, he was shot, police said.

“If you point a gun at a policeman, I guarantee you will get shot,” Camden said.

Camden said the second person shot by police was believed to be 17, and that police in this incident were rookies on foot patrol.

Three others were hospitalized from the initial exchange of gunfire, police said.

Police did not provide the identities of the two people who were killed.

The shootings are being investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority, which was not immediately available for comment.

Police-involved shootings have received increased national attention in recent weeks because of the police shooting of an unarmed teen in a St. Louis suburb on Aug. 9, which has led to sometimes violent protests.