"Off-duty Chicago officer death ‘so bad, so useless’: friend" by STEFANO ESPOSITO, SAM CHARLES, AND GEORGE SLEFO; Chicago Sun-Times 3/14/2014
A 10-year veteran with the Chicago Police Department was killed after a police chase that started in a south suburb ended in a crash just off the Dan Ryan Expressway on the South Side early Friday, police said.
The officer, 42, was just finishing his shift and was on his way home, authorities said. He was a member of a saturation unit dispatched to high-crime areas on the South Side, sources said. He was still in uniform when emergency crews found him.
The chase started about 1 a.m., when police in south suburban Calumet Park began pursuing a stolen vehicle carrying narcotics, a source said. The chase later ended with a crash in the 8700 block of South Lafayette Avenue, just off the Dan Ryan. Two Calumet Park police vehicles were also on scene.
The officer’s name was not released early Friday.
C.W. Harris, 42, has lived on the same block in the Ashburn neighborhood as the deceased officer for several years and remembered his devotion to his wife and two young sons.
“The biggest thing about him, he was a great neighbor and a family man. He did his job and watched out for his children and his wife,” Harris said. “I remember him being my friend.”
Neighbor Ronald Rockwell, 62, wiped away tears as he spoke about the officer.
“It’s so bad, so useless, that a good man like that is lost to this city,” Rockwell said. “I’m going to miss him.”
Rockwell said the officer had moved to the neighborhood about four years ago with his wife and two young boys. The younger man often sought out advice from the older Rockwell — from everything to raising kids to keep his lawn.
“He always admired my lawn. So he asked me how could keep his lawn like that . . . so I gave him tips on how to keep his lawn nice and green and lush, and from there, we borrowed tools from each other,” Rockwell said.
Rockwell said the officer’s two young sons could often be seen playing in the front yard.
“Just a great man. The world has lost a good soul, a good spirit, and we have so few. It’s just a waste.”
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