Fleeing driver who injured Chicago cop with car gets 7 years

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Andrzej Wojtkielewicz

Updated: February 22, 2012 8:06AM

An Elk Grove Village man who hit a Chicago police officer with his car after a long chase from Chicago to Elgin was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison.

Andrzej Wojtkielewicz, 24, was convicted in September by a Kane County jury of one count of aggravated battery to a police officer. Kane County Judge David Akemann sentenced him to the prison term Friday.

Around 9 p.m. July 14, 2009, Chicago police, acting on a tip that Wojtkielewicz had a large amount of cocaine and gun, tried to stop his car at Diversey and Central on the city’s North Side, authorities said.

But Wojtkielewicz fled and led police on a chase onto the Kennedy Expressway and then northwest onto Interstate 90.

Between the Des Plaines Oasis and the Allstate Arena, Wojtkielewicz threw multiple large packages of cocaine out his car window, police said. Some of the packages struck the pursuing police vehicles and some of it was later recovered from the side of the road.

Witnesses said that when Wojtkielewicz stopped his car at the Elgin Toll Plaza, officers approached the car and tried to get him out.

Hew put the car in reverse and knocked an officer down, injuring him, then put the car in drive and drove toward another officer, who fired a single gunshot that fragmented upon striking the windshield. Pieces of the bullet struck Wojtkielewicz in his chest.

Akemann Friday cited Wojtkielewicz’s reckless actions, including the fact that he drove at more than 100 mph, which placed other motorists at great risk. Akemann also cited the large amount of cocaine involved.