Federal prosecutors charged a Chicago man who allegedly shot into an unmarked law enforcement vehicle on Wednesday, injuring three officers.
Eugene McLaurin, 28, faces one count of using a dangerous and deadly weapon to assault a federal agent, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Two of the officers inside the car were agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the third was a Chicago police officer.
The three officers were working on a federal investigation early Wednesday morning in south Chicago when they noticed a white Chevrolet Malibu sedan following their vehicle and noted the license plate number, according to court documents.
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The driver of the Malibu then pulled up next to the officers’ unmarked vehicle, rolled down the window, and began shooting at the officers, striking all three, court documents said.
McLaurin, who said he was driving the Malibu earlier that morning, was arrested later Wednesday. McLaurin told investigators that he began following the officers because he thought their Chrysler 300 sedan belonged to “opps,” or members of an opposing gang, according to the criminal complaint. McLaurin said a friend told him the day before that a sedan of the same description had been surveilling the area.
One of the ATF agents suffered a gunshot wound to the hand, police said, while the other was shot in the torso. The police officer suffered a graze wound to the back of the head and was the 36th officer to be shot at in 2021, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Wednesday.
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McLaurin, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, was scheduled for an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
