East Hazel Crest police shooting kills 27-year-old man

March 20, 2013 (EAST HAZEL CREST, Ill.) (WLS) -- Chicago police fatally shot a man in south suburban East Hazel Crest. Police say the man rammed their vehicle, but the man's girlfriend says they thought they were being robbed.

Chicago police say the incident started as surveillance. Detectives say they watched Ryan Rogers, 27, and his girlfriend get into their car in the 1900-block of West 171st Street around 10 p.m. Tuesday. As cops tried to approach them, officials say, Rogers took off in his vehicle, almost hitting an officer and sideswiping the police car.

Police say that's when an officer opened fire, shooting Rogers. He was taken to a hospital where he died. Authorities said the officers were in fear for their lives.

Neighbors said the officers never identified themselves as police. Rogers' girlfriend, L'Nea Lancaster said she thought they were being robbed.

"I know he wasn't trying to ride off because he was right there, pulled over and crooked. There was a car right in front of him like they stopped him from going anywhere so, he wasn't trying to run nobody over," Robert Brown, neighborhood, resident.

After Rogers was shot, Lancaster says the car continued on until she felt she had to take over the wheel.

"His eyes started to roll back in his head. He looked powerless. I said, 'Baby, can you move?' He said, 'I can't,'" Lancaster said.

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