Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. | James Foster,
Neither President Toni Preckwinkle nor other officials would say if anyone was hit by the gunfire outside her Hyde Park home.
A security detail opened fire on a carjacker outside the Hyde Park home of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle last week, but neither she nor other officials would release details of the attack Thursday, including whether anyone was shot.
The incident occurred on Sept. 27 but was not made public by Chicago police and county officials until this week after the incident was reported by CWB Chicago.
A Forest Preserves police officer was stationed outside Preckwinkle’s home on the 5100 block of South Kimbark Avenue when he “fired shots during an attempted carjacking” around 8:30 p.m., the Forest Preserves District said in a brief statement Thursday.
“The officer is a member of President Preckwinkle’s executive protection detail,” it added. “For security reasons, we do not disclose any of the operational procedures of the detail.”
A few more details were released around the same time Thursday by Chicago police, but it declined to identify the person involved as a police officer. And it said nothing about shots being fired.
The department only said that a “57 year old male” was sitting in his car “when he was approached by an armed offender on foot who attempted to take the victim’s vehicle.
“The offender then fled the scene,” it added. “No injuries were reported at the time of the incident.”
The incident was not reported at the time on the department’s major incident log that is continually updated with major crimes in the city, including carjackings.
But around the time of the attempted carjacking, the log reported that an 18-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the left knee nearly three miles south, at the far end of Jackson Park.
CWB reported that police were looking into whether he may have been shot by the county officer. Neither police nor the Forest Preserves District would comment.
