Page 50 - November 2017 Magazine

Memorial Foundation Valor Awards honors quartet that survived shootout
Flashes from a gun’s muzzle.
Bullets flying by in rapid succession.
Survival instincts.
Family members.
These are the thoughts that crossed the minds of four
11th District Tactical Officers during 44 seconds of hell earlier this year when they faced off with an offender who led them into an apartment building’s courtyard before opening fire with a .40-caliber handgun.
“I think this individual had his mind made up that he was going to go in a blaze of glory,” Officer Antonio Her- rera said.
Herrera and Officers Arturo Bracho, Alejandro Lagunas and Michael Cantore survived the attack and were hon- ored in October at the Chicago Police Memorial Founda- tion (CPMF) Fifth Annual Valor Awards.
The quartet described the March 16 shootout for a video which has been viewed 60,000 times on the CPMF Facebook page. The men described the chaos with poise, but their raw emotions show a deeper impact of the inci- dent’s aftermath.
“I was like, I’m not going to let this guy beat me tonight,” explained Bracho with his chin quivering and eyes watery
as tears welled up. “He’s not going to take me away from my child, my wife, my mom. I gotta be there for them,”
It all happened the night of March 16. The four officers were patrolling together when they spotted a male who appeared to be in possession of illegal drugs. The man walked through the entrance of an apartment building’s courtyard in the 3700 block of West Polk. He looked back toward the officers, who had ordered him to turn around and show his hands.
“He turns around and he has a handgun brandished,” Cantore explained.
Added Lagunas: “After that, everything transpired very quickly.”
Herrera described the man as “walking in a Franken- stein motion” with the gun pointed toward the officers before firing off 11 shots quickly.
Bracho, struck in the hip and back, recalled feeling “sharp pain.” Cantore was hit in the foot as he felt “rounds impacting me around my body.” Herrera was wounded in the back, while Lagunas took at least two in his vest.
The officers returned fire in what turned out to be a 44-second, 33-shot exchange.
“He stops (walking), but he continues to shoot. From
50 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2016