Gun used to shoot 3 Chicago cops traced to sheriff's deputy: sources

The gun used in the shooting of three Chicago police officers last week has been linked to a former Chicago officer who later joined a police force in the northern suburbs, the Tribune has learned.

Chicago police now are trying to figure out how the gun — originally purchased by a man who until Friday was a Lake County sheriff's deputy — ended up in the hands of 29-year-old Lamar Harris, a convicted felon with dozens of arrests who was killed in the shootout with police.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed that authorities investigating the shooting have traced the weapon that wounded the three officers back to the deputy.

That officer was fired from his job with the Lake County sheriff's department Friday after being placed on leave two days earlier, Rich Bruno, vice president of the Illinois Council of Police, the union representing the deputies, confirmed.

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