Police in the Chicago area say an officer was shot and killed while reacting to a “call involving an armed offender” seen leaving a bank.
Friday’s death of 40-year-old Oak Park Police Detective Allan Reddins “marks the first Line of Duty death for the Oak Park Police Department since 1938,” the village said in a statement.
After hours, a suspect was put on trial.
He has “an extensive criminal background,” and cops say that 37-year-old Jerell Thomas is charged with first-degree murder.
This is a hard time for our police service, Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said at a news conference on Friday. “My body hurts. His family is in pain.”
Johnson says that Reddins, who joined the police force in 2019, was one of several officers who approached the suspect who was seen leaving a Chase Bank location. He is said to have pulled out a gun and shot Reddins when cops asked him to show his hands.
“At 9:36 a.m., someone called the Oak Park Fire Department to say that shots had been fired in the 800 block of Lake Street in Oak Park.” When firefighters and rescuers got there, they found that Reddins, an Oak Park police officer, had been shot in the left side. “He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition, but he died of his injuries around 10:10 a.m.,” the Village of Oak Park said.
It also said, “The criminal was shot in the leg.” “He is in custody and is being treated at Loyola and is in stable condition.”
Johnson said that Reddins was a “devoted father” who died and left behind his mother, brothers, and 19-year-old son.
She also said that Reddins was a “natural-born leader” who solved important crimes as a detective.
“I thought he would make a phenomenal field training officer as well, and I was looking very much forward to him becoming a sergeant,” Johnson said.
Oak Park says it “extends its deepest condolences to Detective Reddins’ family, friends and colleagues within the Oak Park Police Department and the wider law enforcement community as they process the grief caused by this senseless act of violence.”