OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) – An Illinois police department is mourning after a 40-year-old officer described as a “family man” was fatally shot while responding to a report of a man leaving a bank with a gun.
An ambulance carrying the body of Oak Park Police Detective Allen Reddins, 40, left the hospital late Friday afternoon. The nine-mile ceremonial caravan to the medical examiner’s office is a ritual unfamiliar to the department’s officers.
Reddins, a five-year veteran with the department, is the first Oak Park officer to die in the line of duty since 1938. He is being remembered as a “family man” who leaves behind a 19-year-old son.
“I’m hurting. This is the worst day of any chief of police,” Chief Shatonya Johnson said. “I personally knew Allen because I did his background investigation, and I quickly identified he had a talent that was needed here.”
Investigators say Reddins was working a beat patrol in Oak Park’s busy business district Friday morning when a call came in around 9:30 about a man leaving Chase Bank with a gun.
People out running errands noticed Reddins responding, approaching a man who appeared to be armed.
“He had gotten out of his car, was walking toward the library. Guy was standing by that post. Nothing was happening at the time. So, I thought he was trying to de-escalate what was going on,” Doris Kelley said. “He had the gun pointed at the ground. I’m going like, ‘I hope nothing happens.’ Then, I heard the shots going off.”
Police say Reddins and other officers asked the man, later identified as 37-year-old Jerell Thomas, to show his hands, and that is when Thomas brandished a gun. Thomas then allegedly began to shoot, striking Reddins on the left side of his body.
Thomas, who was shot in the leg in the incident, was taken into custody.
“There’s tape up. Then, there’s a guy lying down, hurt. I think he’s the one who got shot in his leg, and they arrest him, took his guys and everything,” witness Nicholas Gradishar said.
Police say Thomas is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder of a peace officer, possession of a stolen firearm and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in connection with the shooting. No bond hearing has been set while he is being treated at the hospital.
Copyright 2024 WLS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.