Video shows last moments of street fight before Chicago police shoot, kill alleged attacker

Surveillance video shows the last moments of a street fight in that ended when Chicago police opened fire as a man refused to stop stabbing another man, officials said.The shots hit both men, killing the attacker and wounding the person who was being stabbed, according to a statement released by Chicago police. The person was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.The video, from a nearby liquor store in the 300 block of South Cicero Avenue, appears to show the victim of the attack trying to flag down a police SUV about 11 p.m. Monday. As he tries to evade at least three people, he is apparently stabbed in the middle of the road.Seconds later, a man standing over him falls to the ground after apparently being shot by police. Four people, including what appear to be two officers, are then seen standing near the two bodies in the street.Minutes before the shooting, a call had come over the radio reporting a fight near Cicero and Harrison.An officer-in-distress call then came over police radio about 11:10 p.m. and cops reported a short time later that two people had been wounded.“Shots fired by police,” an officer said over the radio. “This guy was stabbing the victim several times.”The shooting happened near the border of the Harrison and Austin police districts, two of the most violent districts in the city. As police responded to the shooting, calls of gunfire elsewhere continued to be reported over the holiday weekend.Police reported over the radio that a tourniquet had quickly been applied to at least one of the wounded men, though it took roughly nine minutes for the first ambulance to respond to the scene. And it wasn’t until 15 minutes after the shooting that police on the scene confirmed to a dispatcher that officers weren’t searching for any suspects in the attack, according to radio traffic.The alleged attacker was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was identified as Tracey Watson, 35, by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The victim was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Two officers were hospitalized for observation.Willie Williams, an employee at the liquor store where the video was taken, said he was at his home nearby at the time of the shooting and saw “nothing but blue lights.”When Williams returned to work the next day, he said a relative of one of the men came in and told him the incident started with a fight near Harrison and Cicero. Surveillance video captures the men running north from that direction.The relative told Williams he did not understand why police had to use a gun instead of a Taser.Williams, 59, has lived in the area for more than 30 years and said that in that time he’s witnessed shootings just as bad, if not worse.“Nothing ceases to amaze me anymore on Cicero,” he told the Sun-Times. “Nothing.”Tuesday morning, blood could still be seen on the concrete near the intersection, and a recycling receptacle on the corner was filled with red police tape. But at stores around the scene of the shooting, business continued as usual.The person killed by police had been charged in dozens of criminal cases in Cook County dating back to at least 2006, court records show. Many of those cases resulted in him pleading guilty, including to felony counts of resisting or obstructing a peace officer, escape, and possession of a controlled substance.He was charged in three cases this year and recently served 20 days in Cook County Jail before pleading to misdemeanor counts of assault and trespassing in February, records show.The shooting is being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which will conduct a use-of-force evaluation. The will be placed on administrative duties for at least a month.