Police: Marengo officer shot 16-year-old who pointed gun at him

MARENGO – Police spent Sunday investigating an officer-related shooting that occurred Saturday evening, when a teen was shot after allegedly pointing a firearm at a veteran Marengo police officer.

Crime scene tape surrounded a ranch home at 709 E. Prairie St. on Sunday morning, and McHenry County Sheriff’s squad cars blocked off the residential street as investigators took photographs and collected evidence.

Marengo police released a statement Sunday, but it did not mention the age or condition of the juvenile other than to say that he was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Law enforcement sources said later Sunday that the juvenile was 16 years old and was expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday.

A law enforcement source also said the teen was wanted on juvenile warrants, but the source did not know the nature of the charges.

The statement said that police were responding to “suspicious activity” just after 11 p.m. in the 800 block of East Prairie Street before the shooting occurred. The home is less than a mile east of the Marengo Police Department.

“Initial reports indicate that upon arrival, officers were confronted by a juvenile armed with a firearm,” the statement said.

Marengo Police Chief Richard Solarz said police would release more details about the incident on Monday, but he said police were not responding to a domestic call or a party.

Solarz said the officer who fired the weapon was not injured and is on administrative leave, which is normal department policy after an officer-involved shooting.

The officer, who was not named, has been with the department for 10 years.

According to a Marengo Fire Rescue Squad radio call at 11:16 p.m., fire district personnel were called to 709 E. Prairie St. in response to a report of a male subject who had been shot in the abdomen. The radio report said officers were at the scene.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and the McHenry County Investigative Assistance Team still are investigating the incident.

Coincidentally, the last time a Marengo officer shot a suspect was after the Mother’s Day murder of Verna Corcoran, 83, who was strangled during a robbery at her home May 14, 2006, in the Indian Trails subdivision.

In that incident, police chased Jose Manuel Aldava-Grijaldo, 21, of Marengo from the scene, and a Marengo officer shot him to death in Hampshire after he’d been spotted driving the victim’s car.

Aldava-Grijaldo was unarmed, but investigators said that the suspect had advanced on the officer and that the shooting was justified.