A police standoff that began in Englewood with the attempted arrest of a shooting spree suspect ended six hours later with one man dead, the suspect in custody and a high-ranking officer recovering from a head wound, officials said.
Capt. Edward Kulbida, 58, and with the department for nearly 30 years, was in serious condition after being shot in the shoulder and grazed in the head. He was expected to survive, according to hospital and police officials.
He was hit as Chicago police and federal agents attempted to arrest a suspect in a shooting and carjacking over the weekend in Indianapolis that left three people injured. Gunfire was exchanged and police finally stormed the apartment in the 7200 block of South Lowe Avenue around 11:30 p.m., finding one man dead from an apparent gunshot and taking another man in custody.
The identity of the 42-year-old dead man was not released, but the other man was identified as the suspect from Indiana, Daniel P. Brown. At least one gun was recovered, police said.
As police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced the end of the standoff to reporters huddled along 71st Street, a group of three or four women broke into sobs.
"They ... killed him!" one of them shouted.
Authorities said it was unclear how the man inside the apartment was killed. McCarthy told reporters officers did not fire their weapons when they raided the apartment, and added that he did not know the relationship between the suspect and the 42-year-old man.
Chicago police had been asked to assist in Brown's capture after he had been traced to his sister's apartment in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
"It wasn't a blind thing they went into," said Detective Chuck Benner of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. "They were actually looking for us."
Authorities said Brown shot his fiancee's friend Saturday after she intervened in a domestic dispute while they were riding in the same car. Brown allegedly chased and continued to shoot at the friend when she fled the car, police said. He then fled on foot from the scene, stopping a short time later to hijack a car in a nearby hotel parking lot, according to Indianapolis police.
Brown then returned to his fiancee's apartment, where he grabbed his dog and left in his 2009 Nissan Altima, police said. Authorities said he then shot two more people at separate locations, though they say they don't know the motive for either shooting.
"The suspect and victims know each other, and this was not a random act," Indianapolis police said in a statement.
Authorities said they tracked Brown to the 7200 block of South Lowe Avenue, and a semitrailer he allegedly had stolen from a Marion County truck yard Sunday was found at Tuesday's crime scene.
Members of a fugitive task force which included U.S. marshals knocked on Brown's sister's apartment door to serve the arrest warrant around 5:30 p.m., police sources said. A gunman opened fire from a window of an apartment as several Chicago officers were walking up to the door, authorities said.
Police returned fire, McCarthy told reporters. Officers pulled the captain - who was hit in the side of his head and clavicle - into the apartment building's vestibule to escape the gunfire. In seeking refuge, however, police were essentially pinned inside the building.
Authorities at the scene called a 10-1 for an officer needing assistance, and officers from the Englewood police district and across the city quickly converged on the area. The captain was taken out the building's back door and transported to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital.
Hours after the shooting, as the gunman remained barricaded in the apartment, police spotted him peering from windows several times during the evening and believed that he was crawling on his knees from room to room.
Police used a bullhorn to urge the shooter to give himself up while dozens of officers occupied 71st Street and south along Lowe Avenue. By 9 p.m., three hours after the shooting, marked and unmarked squad cars lined 71st Street but few blue lights flickered. Chicago Fire Department ambulance 24 remained on scene.
Police called out their locations to make sure officers were not hit by friendly fire. There was an unconfirmed report on the police radio that one shot was fired inside the building that was not from police.
Several residents of the apartment building refused to leave their homes, including a woman with three young children. It "took us a while" to clear everyone from the building, McCarthy said.
Officers kept a throng of reporters and TV camera operators in a vacant lot on the north side of 71st Street, where children tossed around a football at dusk.
Passersby with cameras snapped pictures on their cellphones of the police officers, who walked past the large crowd and hurried to the scene. This included cops in uniform, plainclothes and some in military-style fatigues carrying high-powered rifles. Illinois State Police troopers also walked around the scene to lend some support.
With a full moon to the east, police and TV news helicopters hovered overhead as the standoff dragged on. Two armored Chicago police vehicles headed to the scene along 71st. One camouflaged vehicle headed south on Lowe while the other remained ready along 71st
Suddenly, a loud "boom" sounded around 11:30 p.m. from a flash bomb tossed into the apartment, prompting a few officers to take brief cover behind a tree and fence. Police then ushered a crowd of about 30 people, including reporters, into a vacant lot north of 71st Street.
At Stroger, meanwhile, dozens of officers gathered into the night to await word of the captain's condition. Kulbida is the highest-ranking officer shot in the line of duty in years. He works as the top assistant to the Englewood District commander.
"The most important thing is that he's in great spirits. He's surrounded by his family and he's going to be okay," McCarthy said. McCarthy said the captain may not even need surgery.
This isn't the first time Kulbida has been injured in the line of duty. In 1998, he and a partner were seriously injured when an allegedly drunk driver crashed into their squad car. Both had to be extricated from the wreckage. Kulbida sustained a broken ankle and pelvis.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Chicago Police Department, their wounded officer, Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and to the officers still on the scene dealing with this volatile situation," Indianapolis police Chief Rick Hite said Tuesday in a statement. "We encourage all of our citizens to pray for a peaceful conclusion, but justice must be served."
The suspect's sister was being questioned by police overnight.
The shooting shut down the neighborhood, as a SWAT team and armored cars descended on the block. CTA and Metra service through the area was disrupted.
Metra trains stopped operating on the SouthWest line shortly after the shooting, according to Metra spokesman Michael Gillis. The last outbound train on the tracks Tuesday evening left Union Station around 6:15 p.m. and was stopped about an hour before returning downtown. The last inbound train turned around at Wrightwood. It was unclear when service would resume.
The last time Chicago police officers were shot and wounded while on-duty was in June, when two officers were hit while exchanging gunfire with a suspect.
Tribune reporters Meredith Rodriguez, William Lee and Stacy St. Clair contributed.