A Chicago police officer on patrol Thursday night at the Chicago Housing Authority`s Henry Horner complex was hit by sniper fire but was saved from serious injury by his bulletproof vest, police said.
The shooting took place shortly after 7 p.m. as a Wood Street District patrolman, whom police refused to identify, was about to get into his patrol car on Washington Street on the city`s West Side. The officer reportedly said he felt a ”thud” on his chest and then looked down to find a hole in his police-issue leather jacket, according to police.
Realizing he had been shot, the officer then noticed a second hole on the outside of his bulletproof vest. Inside the vest, a .22-caliber bullet was lodged between the layers of Kevlar, police said.
The officer`s partner then drove him to St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center, where doctors treated and released the officer, said hospital spokesman Tom Glista.
”He was hit in the upper left side of his chest,” Glista said. ”It would have been a very serious wound if he hadn`t been wearing the vest. But he just got the wind knocked out of him, had redness from the impact and he was a bit shaken up by the whole thing.”
