A 19-year-old man from Gary, Indiana, has been charged with a felony after he was shot by a police officer when he attempted to use his car to strike an officer during a funeral procession on Roosevelt Road, Oak Park Police said Tuesday. The officer fired one shot, striking the 19-year-old in the shoulder, according to police.
Marquan Dunbar of the 300 block of 49th St., Gary, has been charged with aggravated assault to a police officer, a Class 4 felony, and was expected to appear in court Tuesday.
Dunbar was extradited from Merrillville to Oak Park Monday and is being held on $50,000 bond, Oak Park Police Commander Paul Kane said. If convicted, Dunbar could face up to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine, Kane said.
According to authorities, Dunbar was driving in a Sept. 23 funeral procession from a funeral home in the 5000 block of Chicago Avenue, Chicago, and headed west through Oak Park to a cemetery in a neighboring community.
As the funeral procession traveled along Roosevelt Road, an officer from a neighboring community reported seeing an individual waving a handgun out of the passenger-side window of a vehicle, and put out that information on police radio, said Kane, who would not identify the community.
Officers attempted to stop the car Dunbar and his passengers were traveling in near Clarence Avenue when Kane said Dunbar accelerated toward an Oak Park officer, who fired once into the car. Dunbar then steered the car south on Clarence and kept going, Kane said.
“(Officers) could see there were other people in his vehicle; they could not stop the car,” Kane said.
Police later located Dunbar after he traveled on his own to Southlake Methodist Hospital in Merrillville, Indiana, where he was treated and released for a single gunshot wound to the left shoulder, according to Oak Park police.
Witnesses identified Dunbar in an Oak Park police photo lineup, Kane said, and Oak Park police issued a warrant for his arrest. After they located Dunbar in Merrillville, Kane said Merrillville police took Dunbar into custody and brought him to the county jail in Lake County, Indiana, where he signed a waiver of extradition and was extradited to Oak Park. Dunbar is being held at Cook County Jail.
Carly Patzke, a Cook County public defender representing Dunbar, declined to comment on the case.
Kane said the Oak Park officer who fired into the vehicle is on administrative leave as the department follows routine procedures after an officer discharges a weapon. All of the evidence related to the firing of the weapon is being investigated by the Public Integrity Task Force of the Illinois State Police, Kane said.
Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds did not immediately return phone calls seeking more information about the incident.
Police said their investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is urged to contact the Oak Park Police Department at 708-386-3800. Information may also be provided anonymously by calling 708.434.1636 or online at www.oak-park.us/crimetip.