CHICAGO, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Chicago police said the suspects in the slayings of two people in a North Side apartment were possibly involved in other drug-related homicides.
One suspect was killed and two others were arrested Saturday in a shootout with police that left one officer hospitalized with a leg wound.
The 39-year-old officer was in good condition at an Evanston hospital Sunday.
A law enforcement source told the Chicago Sun-Times the suspects were being checked for potential involvement in other killings in the past several months that were the work of a "very bad crew."
The trio was confronted on a North Side street minutes after they allegedly entered an apartment and cut the throats of three people inside. Two of the victims died at the scene and the third was in critical condition.
The wounded officer is a member of a gang unit that was working on another homicide case near the apartment when the first reports of shots being fired came in.
They pursued the suspects' pickup truck to an intersection where it allegedly struck a police squad car. Gunshots broke out and one suspect, Arturo Ibarra, 37, Chicago, was struck in the head.
The Chicago Tribune said Sunday the late-afternoon gunfight took place at a busy intersection near a Red Line stop. "I don't know who got shot, but I saw police carry a body from the black pickup," said Brittany Rolling, who added she heard at least two gunshots.
