My Dog-Walking, Allegedly Armed Neighbor Got Shot By Cops Near Park

CHICAGO — One of my neighbors in Pullman was shot by police Friday, around the corner from me.

I don't know the guy who was shot. And he hasn't been identified, yet.

Here's what authorities say happened:

Officers responded to a call about a "man with a gun" following a dispute between neighbors around 5:40 p.m. and confronted the man while he walked his dog near Langley Park.

That's just steps away from where our dog, Nelson, plays with his puppy pals almost every day.

Officers say the man they stopped on the sidewalk had a gun on his hip.

They asked the man to tie up his dog. The man ran.

Police gave chase. Police say that's when my neighbor pointed a gun at police.

More than one officer shot at the man, who was critically wounded.

Neighbors who heard "pops" hoped the sound was just fireworks.

Then sirens blared. News vans rolled into the neighborhood, an unofficial confirmation that the loud bangs people heard were bullets, not bottle rockets.

On Friday, two neighbors posted details from a police scanner transcript on a private Facebook group.

"The man has been shot multiple times in the back, right leg, shoulder and stomach," the posts read.

"Jesus, this is horrible!!! Was anyone else hurt? Do we know if the victim is still alive?" another neighbor wrote.

As of Tuesday, there was a glimmer of good news. The name of a man who was shot by police near 113th and Langley still hadn't been added to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office rolling list of homicides.

Over the last few days, Pullman has been swirling with rumors about what happened Friday night from the identity — and alleged profession — of the guy critically injured by the park.

People shared unconfirmed details about what they heard about the argument that summoned police, and the sound of a woman's scream shortly after the shooting stopped.

"I don't really know what to think," a neighbor said Monday while I walked Nelson to the park.

All we can do is wait to see what the police reports say and what the body camera videos show.

Civilian Office of Police Accountability officials said police body cameras were rolling during the officers' initial interaction with the man and the shooting that followed.

It could take up to 60 days, and maybe longer, to get a look at video of what happened.

Meanwhile, my neighbors and I have gone back to our routines. The basketball court was alive with air balls, and children chasing each other around the playground.

Nelson took a poop in his favorite spot. I picked it up.

The only visible evidence of the Friday night shooting was a few wilted flowers and a scrap of police tape weakly clinging to the Langley Park fence.

That's life in our city.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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