Off-Duty Chicago Police Officer Shot In The Legs While Sitting On Porch

A Chicago police officer is recovering from being shot in the legs while he sat, off-duty, on a porch Thursday evening on the city's South Side.

The 38-year-old officer was sitting with fellow officers at a home in the 9700 block of South Genoa Avenue around 1:30 a.m. when shots were fired from train tracks nearby, the Chicago Tribune reports.

One of the bullets struck the officer, a 10-year veteran of the force, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He was taken to Oak Lawn's Advocate Chris Medical Center, treated for non-life-threatening injuries and was released early Monday.

A source told CBS Chicago that two rival street gangs were exchanging gunfire near the porch. The source told the station that the officer did not appear to be the intended target.

The officer's name was not released and no one is in custody in the shooting.

The shooting follows a weekend where at least eight people were fatally shot while the city's homicide rate has surged compared to the previous year. Chicago police say the violence is largely due to gang violence, particularly the "fracturing" of larger gangs into smaller ones.