The Chicago Police Department is in mourning Tuesday after two officers were fatally struck by a train while chasing a suspect on the South Side Monday.
Police have been on the scene at 103rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue all night investigating the deaths of two of their own.
Shortly after 6 p.m. Monday, the officers responded to a call of shots fired in the Rosemoor neighborhood. The officers then chased a suspect up to the train tracks at 103rd and Cottage Grove Avenue, where they were struck by an eastbound South Shore Line train bound for Indiana. The officers were pronounced dead at the scene.
Tuesday morning, the Chicago Police Department is demonstrating its highest honors as the top brass of the department retrieve the officer's bodies from the railway and lead a procession to the medical examiner's office. The procession is heading down the Bishop Ford and then proceed to the Dan Ryan Expressway.
"Shock. I mean here we are again. It highlights again just how dangerous this job can be. I often say the most dangerous thing a police officer can do is take a weapon off of an armed individual, and that's what they were doing, with no regard for their own safety," said Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson.
"We've lost two young men, both fathers, young families," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. "This holiday will never be the same for those two families. While our hearts are with them we lost people who answered the call to try and make Chicago a better place."
Police identified the officers who were killed as 31-year-old Gary Conrad and 36-year-old Eduardo Marmolejo. Conrad is a married father of an infant who has only been on the force for 18 months and Marmolejo is a married father of three young children and has been on the force for two-and-a-half years.
Johnson said 2018 has been an "immensely difficult" year for the Chicago Police Department in terms of officers killed in the line of duty, as well as an uptick in officer suicides. He noted it's been a particularly difficult year for the 5th District.
"Pray for the families of these two heroic young men, pray for the 5th District who, even tonight, will stop at nothing to safeguard the community," he said.
Police said a suspect was taken into custody and a gun was recovered at the scene.
Meanwhile, the South Shore Line says to expect delays to continue during the morning rush hours.
Comments