An off-duty Chicago Police officer who was shot three times early Monday during an attempted armed robbery on the Southwest Side is now convalescing at an area hospital with his family by his side.

The 34-year-old officer was shot twice in the chest and also suffered a broken wrist after a bullet struck him in the arm during an exchange of gunfire with the would-be robber, police said.

Despite getting shot in the chest, the bullets missed his vital organs and the officer is “doing well,” resting with his wife and family by his side, police department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said in an email.

Police say the ten-year veteran was getting out of his vehicle when a man with a handgun walked up and attempted to rob him just after midnight, near West 63rd Street and South Nashville Avenue.

The officer fired his gun at the robber and told investigators that he believes he shot the man, though no one was in custody Monday morning and police cannot confirm the robber was shot.

Squad cars flooded the Clearing neighborhood early Monday, searching the thoroughfares and side streets for the shooter. Red and yellow police tape wrapped the crime scene as detectives combed the street under high-powered flood lights.

One neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she heard “a bunch” of gunshots before hearing a vehicle speed away from the scene.

“This is usually a good, quiet neighborhood,” the woman said.

Officers were looking for a silver car and three males thought to be connected to the shooting, police said at the scene.

An onlooker said he heard gunshots and lay on the floor of his home with his son.

Another woman lamented the violence, which she said was unfathomable in a neighborhood that many police officers call home.

A spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, which reviews all police officer-involved shootings, said investigators went to the scene, though they have no findings to report yet.

No one was in custody Monday morning as Area Central detectives continued investigating.

But Stratton expressed confidence an arrest will be made.

“Officers are working the case and the offender will be caught,” she said.

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