So many questions remain unanswered regarding the fatal shooting of a motorcyclist in police custody Tuesday evening. Who is he? How did he manage to bring a gun into the back of a Highland Park police SUV, and to fire it after he'd already been placed in handcuffs?
What we do know is incredible. At around 6:30, police received a call from a motorist claiming to be followed by a man riding a green motorcycle. Highland Park police found the bike in the Barnes & Noble Booksellers parking lot, and soon spotted him coming out of Luke's Locker, a nearby running apparel store.
Officers approached him and he ran, but was quickly brought down. He was cuffed and detained while they ran a check on him and his motorcycle, which they found was stolen. The man, whose name hasn't yet been released, had an outstanding warrant for fleeing from the police. He was loaded into an SUV for transport to the jail. But within minutes, officers heard a gunshot in the back seat. The rear window of the police SUV was shattered. The suspect had managed to slip his handcuffs and pull a small firearm police somehow missed when they searched him.
According to one report, he leaped out of the broken window and fled as officers fired on him. "The policemen were firing real low," a witness, whose Mercedes caught a police bullet, told NBC 5. "And so we didn't know what was happening because the suspect had jumped out of the back seat of the car and the policemen came around and started shooting."
"Both officers returned fire, striking the suspect," an officer told WFAA.
The man was transported to Parkland, where he died. Both officers, neither of whom were injured, have been placed on administrative leave.
