3 undercover agents shot dead, injured in Chicago

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CHICAGO (AP) – Three undercover law enforcement officers were shot and wounded Wednesday morning as they drove on a freeway on the south side of Chicago, police said.

The shooting was reported around 6 a.m. near the 22nd District Police Station in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood. The three were in an unmarked undercover vehicle on their way to a mission when they were shot dead, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters.

Two of the officers were officers from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and one was an officer from Chicago, Brown said. Their injuries were not considered life threatening.

No arrests were reported. During an early morning press briefing, Brown declined to discuss what the three undercover operatives were working on and did not say whether the shooter or shooters knew they were officers.

Filming takes place on the same day as a scheduled visit on the outskirts of Crystal Lake, Illinois, by President Joe Biden. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she plans to discuss gun control and violence in the city when she meets with the president.

One of the ATF officers was shot in the hand and the other in the chest, Brown said from outside a hospital where officers were taken. He said the Chicago officer was punched on the back of the head, but “it looks like a scrape.”

The shots come a day after police reported that 100 people shot dead in Chicago – including two policemen who were injured while trying to break through a crowd – over the 4th of July long weekend.

With Wednesday’s shooting, 36 Chicago officers have been shot or gunned down this year, Brown said.

The holiday weekend shootings included 18 homicides. The bloodshed was on par with the July 4 long weekend last year, when 17 people were shot dead and 70 others were injured.

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Associated Press writer Corey Williams in West Bloomfield, Michigan contributed to this report.

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