Man dies after being shot in exchange of gunfire with Amtrak police officer at Union Station
A man died after an Amtrak police officer shot him in an exchange of gunfire Tuesday at Chicago’s Union Station, authorities said.
The shooting took place shortly after 5 p.m., after the Amtrak Police Department was notified that a person with several California warrants, including one for murder, was arriving on a train at Union Station, Amtrak spokeswoman Olivia Irvin said in a statement.
When Amtrak police officers met the man on the platform he ran, injuring an Amtrak employee, and then opened fire on officers, she said.
One officer returned fire, hitting the man, Irvin said. Paramedics treated him inside Union Station, on the platform between tracks 28 and 30, before taking him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in “traumatic arrest,” Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed Tuesday night the man had died. He still had not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon, pending notification of his next of kin.
Three other people were also taken to hospitals, including the Amtrak employee injured as the man ran and the Amtrak officer who returned fire, who was taken for examination, Irvin and Langford said. One person had lacerations to the face, and was in good condition, Chicago police said.
None of the three were treated for gunshot wounds, Langford said.
Trains were stopped in Chicago for about 30 minutes, Irvin said.
Jerry Bobbitt, 51, was waiting for the train back to his home in the Detroit suburbs when a train station employee yelled that he and the others waiting in the lobby needed to evacuate, he said. He at first wasn’t sure if it was a runaway train or an active shooter, but word of a shooter soon spread.
Bobbit, who was in Chicago for a National Association of Realtors summit, and other passengers went quickly outside and saw police and firefighters arrive, he said.
“Nobody was really hysterical, even the kids,” he said. “It was just, we all ran outside and waited.”
They were allowed back into the station after 10 or 15 minutes, Bobbitt said. He was surprised at how quickly the situation was resolved.
By 5:50 p.m., the train’s scheduled departure, he had boarded and was on his way out of the station, he said.
Amtrak and the Chicago Police Department are investigating.
