The off-duty Chicago Police officer who was injured Thursday after he confronted a man vandalizing a car in Norwood Park is under investigation after firing shots at a car that tried to run him over, officials said. View Full Caption File photo

NORWOOD PARK — The off-duty Chicago Police officer who was injured Thursday after he confronted a man vandalizing a car in Norwood Park is under investigation after firing shots at a car that tried to run him over, officials said.

The 45-year-old officer suffered a leg injury during the incident that occurred just before 6 a.m. Thursday in the 5500 block of North Neenah Avenue near Catalpa Avenue just north of the Kennedy Expressway, Chicago Police Department officials said.

The officer was treated at the hospital and released, a police spokesman said.

When the officer confronted the man, whom he suspected of attempting to steal the car, the man fled into a waiting car driven by another man, officials said.

That car sped toward the officer, who shot at the car but did not hit either man, officials said. It is unclear whether he was injured diving out of the way of the car or if he was struck, officials said.

Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, confirmed the agency was investigating the incident, noting that the agency was charged with looking into all police shootings.

A spokesman for the Police Department did not respond to a question from DNAinfo Chicago about whether the officer, who has not been identified by department officials, had been placed on administrative duty.

In December, after an officer shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier and his neighbor Bettie Jones Interim Police Supt. John Escalante changed the department's policy to require all officers involved in a shooting to be placed on desk duty for 30 days.

It is unclear whether that policy would apply in this case since no one was struck by the officer's bullets, Merritt said.

Police investigating the incident asked any one with a surveillance system in the area between Harlem and Nagle avenues and Foster to Avondale avenues that was recording between 3 and 7 a.m. Thursday to contact the department's auto theft detectives at 312-285-9079.

No one is in custody in connection with the incident, officials said.

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