Multiple Evanston police officers were injured during a fight with a 26-year-old man while breaking up an alleged drug deal Tuesday night, a police spokesman said.
It was the second time in two weeks that an incident left an Evanston police officer in need of hospital treatment.
Officers noticed a suspicious vehicle in the 300 block of Custer Avenue and smelled marijuana smoke, said Evanston Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther in a press release.
After being questioned, the occupants of the car said they were in the area to pick up a friend. Officers then discovered that the people in the car had large amounts of cash in different denominations and noticed a person looking through the blinds of a building nearby.
They approached the man in the building, 26-year-old Jerry Deshaun Johnson of Chicago, and began to question him. The officers determined there was “a high probability that a drug deal had been interrupted,” Guenther said.
Johnson became uncooperative, Guenther said, and resisted a pat-down by officers. He then approached one officer with his fists clenched, Guenther said. Johnson lunged at the officer’s gun and tried to pull it out of the holster.
The officer, whom Guenther would not identify, fought with Johnson for the gun as another officer intervened and helped to arrest Johnson. The officers suffered facial contusions, stitches and abrasions and were treated at an area hospital.
Johnson, who was found to have 14 individually wrapped baggies of marijuana and crack cocaine, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a police officer, one count of attempting to disarm a police officer as well as drug possession charges. He also had an outstanding felony fugitive arrest warrant. Guenther said the warrant was from Cook County but could not provide any more information.
Tuesday’s incident was the second time in the past two weeks an EPD officer has been hospitalized.
On Oct. 8, a rookie police officer was shot while trying to restrain a subject. In that altercation, the injured officer was accidentally shot in the bicep by a fellow officer.
“It’s certainly unfortunate that we’ve had these two high-profile events,” EPD Chief Richard Eddington said.
Eddington said police can only respond to events as they happen.
“The offenders’ actions drove the actions of the police,” he said, adding that “if (the offender) surrenders to arrest, none of this happens.”
Eddington said the two incidents “serve as reminders to our officers the need to be cautious in all situations.”
The police department also has a program to make sure that officers who have been injured or involved in violent situations are properly helped.
“It’s an internal program that we modeled after the Chicago Police Department,” Eddington said.
The program, which was started just over four years ago, serves officers with all type of problems, both directly and indirectly related to police matters.
“The officers have maintained the training, the program, and are very supportive of their fellow officers,” Eddington said.
Despite the two incidents, the operations of the department have not seen any sweeping changes, he added.
“This is, at this point in time, business as usual,” he said.
