Woman with gun shot dead by Gurnee police after chase
A woman who was armed with a gun on Route 41 in Gurnee was shot and killed by police responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle, authorities said Wednesday.
Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said Gurnee police administered first aid to the woman after they shot her and she was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where she was pronounced dead. Her name has not been released.
Route 41 was closed in both directions between Delaney Road and Washington Street for several hours.
Just after 1 p.m., Gurnee police were dispatched to a report of a suspicious vehicle, a white Toyota Prius, that had a bullet hole in it near Harper and Gould streets, Covelli said. Police found the car was occupied by a man and a woman, and they saw the man was unconscious and called an ambulance.
After the paramedics arrived and while officers were trying to talk to the woman in the car, she sped off and struck a Gurnee Fire Department vehicle, Covelli said.
Police followed the car to Chittenden Park, east of the intersection of Grandville and Estes avenues near Route 41. Covelli said the woman crashed the car and fled on foot.
The woman, waving a firearm that had a rifle-style barrel, made her way onto the southbound lanes of Route 41.
"The Gurnee officers engaged with the woman, and she was subsequently shot," Covelli said in a release.
Video obtained by ABC 7 Chicago shows there were no civilian cars or pedestrians at the scene at the time.
Covelli said he did not know how many shots were fired or how many times the woman was struck.
Paramedics found the man in the car and took him to a hospital. He was later released, Covelli said.
Potential evidence, including at least six guns and a pill bottle, were lined up on a curb along Route 41, ABC 7 reported.
Two officers involved in the shooting were taken to a hospital for an evaluation and have since been released, Covelli said. As per Gurnee police regulations, both officers have been placed on administrative leave as the investigation continues.
Covelli said the Lake County coroner's office will be conducted in the morning.