Police say a 19-year-old Evanston man is being held without bond after a court hearing on charges he attempted to murder a police officer.
Antoine Bouzi of 1109 Pitner St. is accused of being the man who fired two shots from a sawed off shotgun at a police officer in the 1800 block of Brown Avenue in the early morning hours of July 29.
Police say the shots narrowly missed the officer and struck a nearby building.
Police had responded to reports of a disturbance on the block and found a large group of men with two in the center of the group shouting at each other.
When the officers shined a flashlight on one of the men, police said, he grabbed his waistband and crouched over, apparently trying to conceal something. When the officer approached him, the man started to flee, ignoring several verbal commands from the officer to stop.
After turning and shooting at the officer, the gunman managed to flee the scene, but dropped his weapon, which police recovered.
Police say that Bouzi was arrested by Chicago police on Sunday and turned over to Evanston police.
After a review by the state’s attorney’s office, charges including attempted murder, aggravated assault and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon were filed against Bouzi.
An Evanston police spokesman could not be reached last night or this morning to address questions about whether this incident is the same one that was reported by police on Friday as having happened at the same time July 29 one block west at 1823 Hovland Court.
In that incident police said Friday they had arrested a different person on the charge of attempting to murder a police officer.
Update 9:45 a.m. 8/7/08:
Evanston police now say that there was only one incident last week involving shots fired at police and that the initial police report regarding the charges filed against the man arrested last week was incorrect. They say that he was actually charged with mob action in connection with the disturbance that culminated in the shooting, but that he was not accused of being the shooter.