Remember when Skokie was a nice quiet Jewish town? Police shoot, wound knife-wielding man in downtown Skokie

A Skokie police officer shot and wounded a man who got into a confrontation Saturday in downtown Skokie with a business owner and then lunged at police with a knife, police in the north suburb said.

The officer — who’s been with the department for 14 years — shot the man after he threatened officers with a knife, according to the police.

The 53-year-old man who was shot was being treated at St. Francis Hospital.

Skokie police were notified by Evanston police at 9:40 a.m. Saturday that a man had grabbed a woman’s wrist on a CTA bus in Evanston, and the bus was heading toward Skokie.

Later, in the 4800 block of Oakton Avenue, near Skokie Boulevard, the man confronted a business owner, who ran back in to her business and locked the door, only to see the suspect try to break it down.

Skokie Sgt. David Pawlak said the man repeatedly lunged with a knife toward officers dispatched to the scene, then took off toward Skokie Boulevard, where the police confronted him and hit him with a baton and used pepper spray, which failed to stop him, and he was told to drop the knife.

When the suspect again lunged towards the officers with a knife, one officer shot the suspect, hitting him in his left leg.