Duty Death: Jaimie Cox - [Rockford]
End of Service: 05/11/2017
By Elyssa Cherney
Chicago Tribune
ROCKFORD, Ill. — A Rockford Police officer was found dead near a traffic crash and a person was dead in a vehicle early Sunday following a possible shooting, police Chief Dan O’Shea said.
Jaimie Cox, 30, made a traffic stop near East State Street and Dawn Avenue in Rockford about 1 a.m. Sunday before making a “brief radio transmission indicating he needed assistance,” O’Shea said at a news conference.
Rockford officers responding to the scene found Cox, who was critically injured, near a single-vehicle crash about two blocks north of the initial traffic stop, O’Shea said. Officers also found another person dead inside a vehicle.
Cox was rushed to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, where he was pronounced dead, O’Shea said.
About 1:20 a.m., Rockford police on Twitter said it was at a “scene of a shooting involving an officer.” O’Shea later would not say whether Cox or the other person was fatally shot, but believed a shooting took place.
“The investigation is still ongoing and very active,” O’Shea said. “We do not believe we have any public at risk at this point. The area is still blocked off from the incident. The detectives are out there working. ... As far as suspects, we don’t feel the public is in jeopardy right now.”
Cox joined the Rockford department in December 2016, a city spokeswoman said.
He previously worked as an officer for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, O’Shea said.
©2017 the Chicago Tribune