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Three undercover law enforcement officers in Chicago were shot early Wednesday not far from a police station.
One officer from the Chicago Police Department and two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents were shot around 5:50 a.m. near the intersection of 119th Street and the ramp onto Interstate 57, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said at a press conference. The three officers were riding in the same unmarked, undercover vehicle attempting to enter the freeway when they were fired upon from the street, Brown said.
Brown said all three were senior law enforcement officials working in an undercover capacity. One ATF agent was hit in a hand, while the other was hit in the side torso. The Chicago Police officer was grazed in the back of the head by a bullet. Their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
The incident happened within the police department's 22nd District that serves Morgan Park on the Far South Side.
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Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern tweeted Wednesday afternoon that one person of interest was being interviewed.
One ATF agent injured is a male, the other is a female. The police officer is a male. No other identifying information was immediately released.
All three were transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center for treatment and released, officials said.
"Our officers are performing their jobs at the highest levels. They’re risking everything to protect the people of Chicago," Brown said. "And this includes our collaboration with ATF. ATF officers are also giving everything to protect the people of Chicago. No one would do what these officers do. This is a very challenging time to be in law enforcement, but they are rising to the challenge."
"The work that they do is extremely dangerous," he added.
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Kristen de Tineo, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the ATF Chicago Field Division, declined to provide additional details about the incident besides asking the public to keep her agents in their thoughts and prayers.
Including the officer struck Wednesday, Brown said 36 Chicago Police officers have been shot this year.
The incident comes a day after police reported that 100 people were shot in Chicago — including two police officers who were wounded while trying to break up a crowd — over the long Fourth of July weekend.
Chicago police Cmdr. Patrina Wines was struck in a foot, while a sergeant, who still has not been publicly identified, was grazed in a leg when gunfire broke out within a crowd of partygoers around 1:30 a.m. Monday in the 100 block of North Long Avenue in Austin, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
The holiday weekend shootings included 18 homicides. The bloodshed was comparable to the long Fourth of July weekend last year when 17 people were fatally shot and 70 more were wounded.
Meanwhile, President Biden is expected to visit the Chicago area Wednesday.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is expected to greet the president at O’Hare International Airport before Biden’s scheduled speaking engagement at McHenry County Community College in Crystal Lake, Ill., to tout his infrastructure and American Families Plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
