Man charged with attempted murder of cop

A Kane County grand jury Monday indicted an Elk Grove Village man on charges he tried to kill a police officer with his vehicle after a high-speed chase through the suburbs.

Andrzej Wojtkielewicz, 21, of the 900 block of Tennessee Lane, faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer and aggravated battery to police, the state's attorney's office said.

Wojtkielewicz is accused of trying to run over an officer with his sport utility vehicle after a July 14 chase that ended near the Elgin Toll Plaza.

Police said Wojtkielewicz had fled some 30 miles to Kane County after police tried to pull him over after a suspected drug deal in Chicago.

Once he finally stopped at I-90 and Route 31, police said, Wojtkielewicz tried to strike an officer who approached his car. Police then shot him.

Defense attorney Richard Brzeczek acknowledge his client fled police but flatly rejected claims he tried to hit an officer with his car.

"The physical evidence just does not match up," he said.

Brzeczek said evidence shows his client was shot in the chest twice from different angles, and may have been outside the vehicle when the second shot was fired. He also said there was no crash-related damage to the vehicle, and inside only a drop and a smear of blood.

"When he was shot, the car was stopped," Brzeczek said. "He wasn't trying to run anyone over. There was no justification to shoot him."

Wojtkielewicz, who recovered at an Elgin hospital, remains in the Kane County jail on $1 million bond pending arraignment Sept. 25 in front of Associate Judge T. Jordan Gallagher.

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