I have been trying to catch up on the threads. (I wrote the below post a day ago and have yet to catch up on the new pages so pardon if I repeat anything that is new in the last day and a half.
I once lived in the area, familiar with the lay out and I have family who own a business extremely close to the location the officer was shot. (No, they didn't hear it)
A few things I wanted to point out and suggest regarding some observations and questions.
1) There are inconsistent statements as to whether or not the officer had worked out that morning prior to work or had come directly from his hometown. Two options of routes would be 59 and the other Grass Lake down to Route 12. From looking at the FB page it seems he worked out at Snap Fitness which is near the intersection of Grass Lake Rd. Hence, had the officer worked out prior to his shift, the likely viable route would have been 12 which would have allowed for him to have made the observations he called in. I was also questioning how this played out until I read that he may have worked out that morning.
2) Thoughts regarding a set-up in relation to the issues in the department. My thought is PURELY speculation as a response to this theory posed by other posters. Some of the ideas as to how this would have transpired in relation to the department issues, seem a little far fetched and too complicated to be reality. Perhaps, if it is simplified it could make more sense. Let's say hypothetically if the officer was a witness or whistleblower in the department issues and there was some form of a "hit" called out on him. Whom better would know this Officers patrol routes, duties etc etc... ?? Those within the department? Ding Ding Ding. (Though I don’t believe it was an officer or someone within the department that would be here but with the use of outside parties to commit the crime) It would then not be as far fetched to have a preconceived plan in place and awaiting for this particular officer to arrive to this location. If you recall his radio transmission in to dispatch, he references the old cement factory but near the equipment south of Honing. Location was broken down to be more precise. Now, stop and think about this for a moment - 7:52 AM we know the officer indicated he had a visual on these “subjects” but think about this for a moment. While it does not seem like a long time 3 minutes can be an eternity. What happened in this 3 minutes? What words were exchanged? I doubt for 3 minutes they all just stared one another down. There could have even been an altercation or confrontation at this point but time was of the essence and maybe with his vetted experience thought he could handle the situation in just letting dispatch know they subjects took off on him. He didn’t ask for backup, it was asked upon him twice. This is a little strange to me but perhaps not so. If he started to pursue on his own into the woods without maintaining a visual he could have easily been ambushed. Shot once, enough to bring him to his knees, with the second shot being within close range and pointed downward. Quite possible and you don’t even need to have the conspiracy theory of this being a set up. It could be exactly what was reported. While I don’t personally fully buy into this scenario of a set up, it is Illinois and I am quite familiar with the corruption issues throughout the state and it is not lost within various police departments. There has been rumblings that this retired officer from CPD is somehow related to “family” type organizations which would make his threats more interesting (but sloppy, which doesn’t fit their “Mo”
if this scenario is more plausible. This area is no stranger to those types of outfits which go hand in hand with the drug trade. Just do a little googling. It is food for thought enough to throw into a pool of theories. Also, there was a chicago pd officer with the same name that was reprimanded for 15 months for trying to peddle drugs that were seized second hand. Can’t verify if it is same person but the name is the same it is on the www if you google it.
7:52 AM
6740 = I'm at (inaudible) the old concrete plant, checking on two male white, male black, uh, by the equipment south of Honing.
Dispatch = Ten-4. Did you need a second unit?
6740 = Negative, Dispatch.
7:55 AM
6740 = They took off towards the swamp.
Dispatch = 740, Ten-4, did you need a second unit?
6740 = Yeah, now go ahead and start somebody.
8:01 AM Two backup officers arrive.
3) The suicide theory. Likely when I started writing above my thoughts were still pretty dead set against it for numerous reasons. However, in going back through the transcript, I can find the flip side to the argument as being plausible. I could take the same factor of the precise location given to dispatch. Officer declining backup. I can see this though logically, a veteran officer, small town etc.. Hypothetically, if there are no actual subjects. The 3 minutes could have allowed to get to the location near the swamp if the intention was to commit suicide. Then alerting dispatch to “where the unknown offenders” were heading (To find/locate body). I do find it strange that he comes on the radio with “They took off towards the swamp” with nothing else described or requested. What gets me would be the use of the word “NOW” “Now, go ahead” .. Liken the old term “Ready or not, here I come” ..”Now I am ready”. I could be reading to much into it but I have sat through a few statement analysis lectures in the past and words in how they are spoken/structured are more powerful than most people realize. This officer doesn’t strike as the type who would set up an elaborate scheme to do something like this. He seemed like a man of honor and took his job serious and to heart. If this does turn out to be a suicide, I have to wonder if that sentiment alone could have driven him to take his own life. He obviously wasn’t ready to retire as he was seeking the Chief position in Antioch. Also, something to consider is that I noticed he had a massive arm injury last year, even showed the stitches and cast on his FB photos. I wonder if this happened at work? If it did he would have been looking at a nice work comp settlement as Illinois is overly worker friendly, that even the frauds are paid well when faking injury. Had the injury not happened at work then he would not be covered by work comp, possibly loosing wages or on desk duty etc… Also, I wouldn’t put to much thought into this as many people “joke” around about things without ever realizing them but in one of the photos there was mention of him running a mud run twice in the day and his wife joking that she needs to up his life insurance policy. Again, totally not related but it is scary to think how past words can haunt. I also would think a seasoned handler of weapons would realize how this would be found out but again he was seasoned and perhaps felt he could get around this.
4) I also feel that if these unknown offenders were younger, the officer would have likely used the term “Juveniles” in his his description. Just a thought.
