2 Chicago police officers hit and killed by train
Chicago IL December 18 2018 Two Chicago police officers were killed Monday night when they were hit by a train while investigating a call of shots fired on the city’s Far South Side.
Officers Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Conrad Gary, 31, were killed in the line of duty while responding to a call for service on the railroad tracks.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said both men were fathers of young children. Marmolejo had two and a half years on the force, and Gary had 18 months, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said.
The officers were doing surveillance following a ShotSpotter report when they were hit by an outbound South Shore train at the 103rd Street Rosemoor stop near 103rd Street and Dauphin Avenue around 6:20 p.m.
“These brave young men were consumed with identifying a potential threat,” Johnson told reporters at a news conference held late Monday at the Police Department’s South Side headquarters.
Johnson said the officers were responding to a shots fired call when a suspect made his way up to the Metra tracks. The officers then pursued the suspect on foot, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
“The most dangerous thing is to take a weapon off an armed individual,” Johnson said.
Both officers were assigned to the Calumet police district, which covers several Far South Side neighborhoods, including Roseland and West Pullman. Johnson said the pair worked as partners Monday night but he did not know if they were regular partners.
Police recovered a weapon near where the officers were struck and were questioning a person of interest late Monday, Guglielmi said. Officers also found shell casings near the scene of the original shots fired call.
In a departmentwide memo, Johnson said the officers were “killed in the line of duty while responding for a call of service on the railroad tracks.”
“I am deeply saddened by this tragic event and ask that everyone keep their (families) and co-workers in their thoughts and prayers,” Johnson said. “An investigation is underway, and we will keep everyone updated as details emerge.”
Metra officials shut down all traffic on the Metra Electric District tracks Monday evening while authorities worked at the scene.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates South Shore trains, uses Metra tracks.
The officers’ deaths were similar to an incident on the West Side in 2002 in which Officer Benjamin Perez was fatally struck by a Metra train on an embankment while conducting an investigation.
The two Chicago police officers who died Monday are among four killed while on duty this year. Their deaths come about a month after Officer Samuel Jimenez, 28, was killed in a mass shooting at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center on the Near South Side. Two women, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, 38, and pharmacist Dayna Less, 24, were also killed in the Nov. 19. shooting.
On Feb. 13, Cmdr. Paul Bauer, 53, was fatally shot while chasing a suspect to a stairwell outside the Thompson Center in the Loop.
Three other officers have died within the Calumet District while at work this year, two of them from suicides when fatally shooting themselves outside the district’s police station on East 111th Street in separate incidents.
The third officer who died, 47-year-old Vinita Williams, died in July after collapsing at the station. Her cause of death was ruled was ruled inconclusive, pending further review by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Johnson said the department is sending chaplains and counselors from the department’s employee assistance program to the Calumet District, the department’s 5th District.
“The 5th District had to deal with tragedy after tragedy this year,” Johnson said. “But the resolve of Chicago police officers always amazes me … they’re going to strap up, put on their uniforms and go out tonight to keep this city safe.”
The deaths of Marmolejo and Gary mark the first time in almost 30 years that two Chicago police officers were killed in the line of duty during the same incident. Grand Central District Officers Raymond Kilroy and Gregory Hauser were fatally shot on May 13, 1990, while responding to a domestic disturbance on the Northwest Side. They were killed in a scuffle with a man named Roman Chavez, then 23, in the 2100 block of North Nordica Avenue after he seized Hauser’s gun and shot both officers. Chavez is currently serving a life sentence for the killings.
As Chicago police officers expanded the area of the crime scene on the tracks Monday evening, a bi-level rail car with the silhouettes of numerous passengers inside remained stopped on the overpass that crosses 103rd Street. Nearby, bystanders outside a Popeyes restaurant walked or ran to the area of the tracks, some ducking under the yellow police tape.
A woman in the group said she had been at her home nearby planning a trip to the restaurant when the sight of several police officers driving through alleys west of the tracks made her postpone her trip. Less than an hour later, officers swarmed the area and a police helicopter was overhead.
“Imma pray for their families. That’s all I can do. And then these people on the train, trying to get home …” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.
CTA buses were brought to the area starting around 9 p.m. to offload passengers. As of 11:30 p.m., inbound and outbound trains were operating to 95th Street and to Kensington, with buses available to shuttle passengers past 103rd to meet trains heading the rest of the way to Millennium Park and University Park.
Cars filled the parking lot at the Hegewisch train station, where buses took passengers from the train. One man said he’d been waiting for his wife for several hours.
As she walked to her car, Roxanne Brown shuddered when she recalled the moment the train hit the officers. She said did not yet have words to describe it.
Brianna Medina caught the train at Millennium station with plans to get off at Hegewisch. It left minutes before 6 p.m. and stopped unexpectedly about a half hour later, she said.
“It kind of felt like rocks, and it sounded like it was hitting rocks,” she said. People on the train near her didn’t seem to react, figuring something was wrong but not knowing what, she said.
“We were just sitting there in silence,” Medina said. “About two hours later, someone finally told us what was going on.”
They waited another hour before boarding buses, she said. Her bus arrived at the Hegewisch station around 10:30 p.m.
“Obviously you feel for the families,” Medina said. “Before knowing I was kind of just upset that I couldn’t go home, but then after finding out you really—you feel sympathetic toward them. It’s not about you anymore, it’s about what happened.”
Like Medina, another passenger, Tiffany Johnson, said finding out why the train had stopped “drastically” changed her feelings about the situation.
Initially, Johnson was upset. She had been on her way from Millennium Station to visit a friend in Hegewisch.
“It started buzzing that someone got hit by the train,” she said. “That rumor escalated to two people got hit by the train… a young man that was on the train, he actually has friend that’s CPD, so that’s how the people in my area got the information.”
“…To find out that these people were doing their job, and just to have that happen—I’m just glad that I’m making it home and I just hope and pray that the families, [that] they’re alright,” Johnson said.
Chicago Tribune
