An Elgin police officer was shot in the leg by a fellow officer Thursday after a pit bull charged at them while they were trying to serve an arrest warrant, officials said.
The wounded officer, identified as Ken Ericson,was treated at Sherman Hospital in Elgin and released, said a police spokeswoman.
The pit bull was killed by police gunfire.
Ericson was one of about four Elgin officers, who along with an investigator from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office, went to a second-floor apartment in the 1100 block of Fairwood Drive on the city’s northwest side, police said.
They were searching for a man named in an arrest warrant for failing to appear for a hearing in Kane County Circuit Court, police said. They also were trying to serve him with a summons in connection with a civil case in DuPage.
Citing the investigation, police Lt. Cecil Smith said few details were being released about the shooting, which occurred in a sheltered area outside the apartment after the dog charged out from the front door.
No one was at the apartment at the time, and officers were unable to locate the man named in the warrant and summons.
“I’m hurt. My dog died,” said Melissa Hoving, 25, owner of the 4-year-old male pit bull, named Sugar. “My dog’s innocent — you know what I mean?”
She said the front door of her unit sometimes comes unlatched.
Elgin police officers also had come up empty earlier this year in a controversial raid on a home in the 400 block of Ann Street. Officers had received a tip that a 20-year-old man was in the home with weapons. But nothing was found, and the home’s owners complained that officers were rude and used excessive force.
On Wednesday, a retired Illinois state police official hired by Elgin told City Council members that the show of force used by officers during that raid was reasonable and appropriate.
Robert Johnson, a 35-year law-enforcement veteran and retired lieutenant colonel with the Illinois State Police, was paid $2,600 by the city to investigate the March 11 raid at the home of Frank Granger, a retired Metra conductor, and his wife, Betty.
Mayor Ed Schock said that the consultant’s report added credibility to the city’s own investigation and that he hoped the matter was put to rest.
Thursday’s shooting will be investigated by the Elgin Police Department’s Office for Professional Standards, Smith said. He said the other officer, whom police declined to identify, fired “a couple of shots” at the dog.
That officer would be limited to desk duty while the investigation is under way, Smith said.
Smith said Ericson, a nine-year veteran of the department, may have been struck by a ricochet.
Police also declined to identify the man for whom they were searching, but Officer Tamara Welter, a police spokeswoman, said officers received a tip that he was in a unit at the building.
Although the death of the dog was unfortunate, the safety of the officers was more important, Welter said.
Hoving said she and a friend, Kevin Strauss, 23, had left the apartment shortly before police arrived. She and Strauss said the dog had been trained in obedience schools and had never been aggressive.
“He’s the nicest dog in the world. He never attacked anyone, and they shot him,” said a tearful Strauss.
