A Chicago police officer shot a man in the leg in Calumet Heights on the South Side early Sunday after getting a call from someone threatening suicide, authorities said. Devontae M. Phillips was charged with two misdemeanor counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer/volunteer, according to Chicago Police. Phillips, who lived on the block where the shooting happened, was released on a $1,500 bond Monday morning.
Just before 1:10 a.m., a person called 911 saying he was in a second-floor apartment in the 1800 block of East 87th Street and was going to kill himself, a source said. The caller said he had a 9mm handgun, according to the source. About 1:15 a.m., police arrived to assist with the EMS call, according to Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy. Officers found a man in the apartment “holding what appeared to be a handgun” and they told him to drop it, Roy said.
The man pointed the gun at the officers, and one of them deployed a Taser while another officer fired his gun, Roy said. The Taser connected with the man and he was also shot in the leg, Roy said. The man was taken to a hospital and his injuries were not considered life-threatening, Roy said. A weapon was recovered from the scene, according to a police statement. Neither Chicago police nor the Independent Police Review Authority would say what kind of weapon was recovered.
The man’s girlfriend, who said she was in the apartment at the time, said her boyfriend did not have a weapon and did not point anything at police. The only weapon in the apartment was an unloaded BB gun which was locked away, she said. “He definitely had no gun on him,” she said, speaking to the Tribune on condition of anonymity. She said they had been fighting and a neighbor probably called 911. They were in the bedroom at the back of the apartment when officers entered.
He was sitting on a couch in the bedroom and was shot when he took one of his hands out of his pocket, she said. She said her boyfriend, who is 18, does not have a history of harming himself or threatening to commit suicide. He is an apprentice at the Carpenter’s Union and is due to get his union card in a few weeks, she said. They met at Dunbar High School, where they both graduated from this year, she said.