By Steve Neavling
A 28-year-old man who allegedly confessed to shooting two ATF agents and a Chicago police officer on Wednesday morning said he mistook them for rival gang members, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Eugene “Gen Gen” McLaurin has been charged with one count of using a dangerous and deadly weapon to assault a special agent, a crime publishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.
Chicago police arrested McLaurin on Wednesday morning before he was transferred to federal custody on Thursday.
The law enforcement officers came under fire while inside an unmarked car that was getting on Interstate 57 about 6 a.m. They were conducting an undercover investigation.
They were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. One of the agents was shot in the side, and the other was shot in the hand. A bullet grazed the side of the Chicago police officer’s head.
According to federal prosecutors, McLaurin admitted shooting the officers with a Glock 9mm, saying the officers’ unmarked car matched the description of a car that a friend said had been driven by “opps” – or members of a rival street gang.”
McLaurin has a criminal record. In 2013, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal gun possession. In 2015, he was sentenced to five years in prison for illegal gun possession and delivery of methamphetamine
