Off-Duty Chicago Officer Shot Two Men From His Car in Little Village, Then Drove Off and Fired Toward the Group

An off-duty Chicago police officer stopped his car in Little Village before 1 a.m. on Sunday, October 4, 2026, talked to people on the sidewalk, and shot two of them. The Chicago Police Department says a man in that group struck him in the face. He fired from the vehicle, hitting that man twice and wounding a second man in the arm. Then, by the department’s own account, he drove a short distance, got out, and fired toward the group again. No names have been released. The written statement does not say anyone on the sidewalk was armed. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating, and the officer is being moved to administrative duties for at least 30 days.

A bloodied eye is a real injury. It does not explain why an officer who still had a running car fired, left, and fired again. That second burst is what COPA has to measure against Chicago’s use-of-force rules.

What Chicago Police Say Happened on West 24th Street

Police place the officer in the 2600 block of West 24th Street at about 12:48 a.m., in the 10th District. COPA has described the scene as the 2400 block of South Rockwell Street. Those are two names for one corner, 24th and Rockwell, on the Southwest Side.

The department statement, as reported by CWB Chicago, says the off-duty officer was driving, stopped, and verbally engaged a group on the sidewalk. A man approached the vehicle, physically engaged him, and struck him in the face. The officer fired and struck that man twice. A second person was shot in the arm. FOX 32 Chicago reported that the man accused of the strike was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition and stayed in custody, and that the second man got himself to the same hospital in good condition. NBC Chicago reported the same sequence, including the later shots.

Responding officers found him bleeding from his left eye and took him to a hospital for that injury, not a gunshot. Police have not released his age, his unit, or whether he was in uniform, whether the gun was a department weapon, or whether he said he was a police officer before he fired.

The Second Burst of Gunfire After the Officer Drove Away

The statement does not stop at the car. After those shots, the officer drove a short distance, stopped, got out, and fired again toward the group. CWB Chicago reported that police said no one was hit by that second round. A miss is not a smaller event. It is still a firearm discharge on a block of houses, and Chicago policy does not treat “nobody else was struck” as the test.

The night is two decisions, not one. The first was at the window, just after the strike. The second came after the officer had driven away, stopped, and stepped back out. Force rules apply at the moment of each shot. If the threat ended when the car moved, the later shots need their own reason. The department has not given one.

CWB Chicago also reported that the gunfire lasted about a minute and that the officer called 911 with a 10-1, the code for an officer who needs help. That code fills a block with police. It does not say who fired which rounds, or whether anyone fired back. Casings and cameras will.

Early Radio Traffic Described a Different Little Village Shooting

Hours earlier, the radio told a different story. CBS Chicago reported dispatch traffic describing a man with a gun behind a gray SUV near 24th and Rockwell, shots down an alley, and an exchange that wounded two people, one of them said to be an off-duty officer. That early account put the gunfire at seven shots or more. On the tape, officers focused on a white Jeep with open doors and evidence markers, plus a dark SUV.

The written statement dropped the exchange. It described a face strike, shots by the officer, a second wounded man, and more shots after he drove off. It did not say the officer was shot, and it did not say the man who hit him had a gun. A shootout and an officer firing after a punch are not the same event. COPA has to decide which version the casings, the hospital chart, and the video support.

The marker shared that morning sat on 24th at Rockwell, a block south of West 23rd Place. CWB Chicago reported officers had already gone to the 2600 block of West 23rd Place around 11:30 p.m. for shots fired and found nobody hurt. About half an hour later they returned. Still no injuries, but a resident reported a bullet hole in his home. The radio called the gathering gang members. That is an unverified label, not a name, and it often arrives before any identification does.

Nothing public ties the sidewalk group on 24th Street to that damage on 23rd Place, and the department has not claimed the link. Residents were already calling in gunfire before the officer’s 10-1. A house with a fresh bullet hole is its own case. It does not answer who fired later.

When Deadly Force Is Supposed to Be a Last Resort

Chicago’s use-of-force order, General Order G03-02, calls deadly force a last resort, allowed only to stop an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm. Imminent, in that order, means it is objectively reasonable to believe the person is immediately about to cause that harm, has the means to do it, and has the chance to do it. A punch can be a battery. It can cut the skin around an eye. It is not, by itself, a weapon. The same order bars deadly force on someone who is fleeing unless the threat is still imminent, and it tells officers to identify themselves first when that is safe. Off duty is not an exception.

Firearm rules also say to lower the force as the threat drops. Driving away is distance. Getting back out and firing toward a group is a new decision. If the public facts are only that one man was already shot and the car had already moved, the department has not shown an imminent threat for the second burst. The 30 days of administrative duty that follow a discharge are not a finding. CPD told reporters the assignment is department protocol, and the directive says it is not punishment and does not depend on the outcome of the investigation. The calendar is a pause. COPA is supposed to decide what the pause is worth.

A WGN report on a Plainfield standoff showed an off-duty Downers Grove officer who went weeks without charges. That night is not this one. It is the habit COPA was built to interrupt, where being off duty softens the story. The AEGIS Alliance has tracked the same double standard in the Ventura County case of deputies accused of beating a bouncer en Atlanta Taser judgment left standing against one officer.

What the COPA Investigation Still Has Not Named

COPA said its investigators were there and asked the public to call 312-746-3609 or to use chicagocopa.org. The Investigative Response Team was on scene, and CPD said it is cooperating. That claim is only as good as the video pulled from neighbors, city cameras, and the officer’s phone, and as the match between rounds fired and casings found.

Still missing are the officer’s name, both men’s ages, and any claim that either man was armed. Also missing are the round counts, where the casings landed, whether a bullet hit a house, whether he identified himself, and whether he was drug- and alcohol-tested, which the rules require after a discharge. The reason the man is in custody is missing too. It may be the alleged battery, a gun no one has described, or only the fact that an officer shot him and he lived.

That clip is not Sunday morning in Little Village. FOX 32 posted it on October 1, 2026, about a different Chicago police shooting whose COPA video stayed sealed until a court order. It is here because residents should not need a leak to see whether the second burst was defense or gunfire sent down the block after the officer already had a way to leave.

Residents Were Already Calling in Gunfire on 23rd Place

Little Village does not need a story that starts and ends on a scanner label. People near 24th and Rockwell woke up to tape, a command post, and two trips to Mount Sinai. One man, shot twice, is in custody in fair condition. The other, hit in the arm, got there on his own in good condition. The officer was treated for his eye and has not been named. Neither has the resident who found the bullet hole on 23rd Place.

The department has already said enough to hold. An off-duty officer stopped. He was struck. He shot two people from his car. He drove off, got out, and fired again. Police say that second volley hit no one. They have not said it was necessary. Until COPA or a prosecutor fills that gap, 30 days at a desk is only a calendar, not an answer to shots fired after the car was already moving.

More on how departments explain force after the fact is on The AEGIS Alliance police accountability desk, with related files under misdaadnieuws en de bredere nieuws section.