COPA releases video of 2020 incident in which suspect shot three officers outside Grand Central District station

CHICAGO (CBS) — The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released body cam video and other documentation Wednesday of a 2020 incident at the Grand central (25th) District police station in which three officers were shot.

Police returned fire and shot the suspect, Lovelle Jordan, in the incident on July 30, 2020.

Jordan was the suspect in a carjacking the month prior. He was arrested around 9 a.m. that morning in the 4800 block of West North Avenue in the North Austin neighborhood, after police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle, and spotted an unoccupied white Porsche that had been stolen in an armed carjacking last month, police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at the time.

As officers were processing the vehicle, Jordan walked up to the car and got in.

“He walks right up to the Porsche, and he enters the Porsche, trying to drive away,” Deenihan said at the time.

Deenihan said the officers immediately jumped out of their squad car, and tried to pull Jordan out of the Porsche. Deenihan said Jordan struggled with police, who handcuffed him behind his back, and took him to the Grand Central District station in a marked police sport-utility vehicle with a cage in the back.

Body cam video shows Jordan on the ground being handcuffed at the scene. Jordan says that he has third-degree burns on his body and complains about the handcuffs. He asks officers to handcuff him in the front rather than the back, and officers repeatedly refuse.

Officers search Jordan and find his phone, money, and marijuana, but no weapon.

Deenihan said officers who arrested Jordan did search him, and found money and drugs, but did not find a gun he had hidden on him.

For almost four minutes, an officer drives a squad car with Jordan in custody in the back seat – unknowingly armed. In that time, Jordan someone moved his cuffs to the front, and got his hands on the gun that had been hidden against his crotch.

When police arrived at the sally port at the station at 5555 W. Grand Ave. on the city’s West Side, and an officer opened the door of the SUV to take Jordan inside, Jordan shot the officer in the chin. The officer fell backward, and Deenihan said that was when Jordan and other officers outside the station engaged in a shootout.

Sources said between Jordan and the officers, more than 50 shots were fired.

Multiple videos issued by COPA document the shootout. 

First, the officer who had been driving the the SUV transporting Jordan opened the door of vehicle, and found Jordan waiting for him. Dashcam video shows the officer fall to the ground after being shot in the face and neck.

The officer managed to find cover behind the squad car. Officers nearby rushed over to help, and the police station turned into a battleground. A shootout ensued and two other officers were hit.

Jordan made a run for it, and hid behind another police car, before he was shot and fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, body cam video shows another officer for a 10-1 for emergency backup, yells that an officer is down and has been shot in the chest and orders Jordan to drop his weapon. This officer also fires numerous rounds.

This officer repeatedly orders the suspect to show his hands, and later announces that the suspect is down, but still has his gun.

A wounded officer is then seen being treated in the sally port amid a rash of commotion and calls for an ambulance.

Jordan was charged with six felony counts of attempted murder, one felony count of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, two felony counts of drug possession, one felony count of illegal possession of a weapon by a felon, one felony count of being an armed habitual criminal, and two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest.

We asked how Jordan could move his hands to the front while handcuffed in such a short time. Police told us it has happened before – with suspects sliding their hands under their legs to the front while seated.

At the time of the shooting, Jordan was a convicted felon on parole for gun charges, and had been on electronic monitoring until June 2020.

Last month, Jordan was sentenced to 31 years in prison after pleading guilty. Shortly afterward on April 19, Jordan died at a hospital in Joliet.