Police Bodycam Shows West Rogers Park Shootout with Suspected Hate Crime Gunman

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has released footage from police body cameras that captured a tense shootout in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. The incident occurred on October 26 around 9:30 a. m. , when a 39-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was shot in the shoulder by an assailant who approached from behind. Neighbors rushed to help the wounded man as the shooter stayed nearby.

The video, released on Thursday, shows police officers responding to the scene. Suddenly, the suspect, 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, ran out of an alley and started firing at a Chicago Police Department (CPD) officer and a nearby Chicago Fire Department ambulance. The bodycam footage reveals a puff of smoke from Abdallahi’s gun. According to COPA records, five out of the ten responding officers fired their weapons, resulting in a flurry of gunshots that lasted about three minutes. Abdallahi was hit multiple times and apprehended. He faced charges including attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, hate crime, and terrorism. However, on November 30, he was found dead in his Cook County Jail cell. The county medical examiner’s office hasn’t yet determined his cause and manner of death, although the sheriff’s office previously mentioned an apparent suicide attempt.

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