A woman was killed in a police-involved shooting that shut down the Jane Addams Tollway in the northwest suburbs early Monday, authorities said.
Decynthia Clements, 34, was fatally shot on I-90 early Monday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
Around 12:34 a.m., officers made contact with a "suspicious vehicle" in the area of Cedar Avenue in Elgin, according to Elgin Police Chief Jeff Swoboda.
During the encounter, Clements fled the scene in her vehicle, Swoboda said. Officers then attempted pull the car over, but the driver did not stop and they terminated the pursuit, according to police.
The vehicle was then located with "obvious signs of damage" on westbound I-90 near Route 25, Swoboda said.
"Elgin officers made contact with the subject and observed that she was armed with a knife," Swoboda said.
"Officers then disengaged immediately and proceeded to negotiate with her for over an hour. During that time she would periodically move her car up several feet," he continued.
"At one point officers noticed that a fire had started inside the vehicle," Swoboda said. "They approached the burning vehicle in an attempt to pull her out. There was an exchange, and that’s the part that state police will be investigating what occurred, that then the officer discharged their firearm, striking the female."
Clements, of the first block of North Aldine Street in Elgin, was taken to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates where she was pronounced dead, according to Elgin police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
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Clements' father and brother said they "want answers at to what happened" in the shooting.
"She couldn’t have been that big of a threat," Clements father Charles Clements said, adding, "She ain’t that big."
"Any officer could’ve easily pushed her down and deescalated any situation," her brother Chevelle Clements said. "Now you have a car burnt up and a person that’s dead totally unjustified."
I-90 was closed in both directions in Elgin from around 4:15 a.m. through roughly 9 a.m., according to Illinois State Police, the agency conducting the investigation into the shooting.
One officer was placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with department policy, Elgin police said. The investigation remains ongoing.
