By Lauren Zumbach and Lisa Black
Chicago Tribune
FOX LAKE, Ill. — On the morning of Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz’s death Sept. 1, a trio of his fellow officers were close enough to the scene to hear what was likely the fatal shot, according to police reports released Thursday.
The three officers were responding to a call to assist Gliniewicz a few minutes before 8 a.m. after he radioed that he was checking out three suspicious individuals in a swampy area near U.S. 12, according to the police reports.
“They were all in the vicinity and one said, ‘Is that a shot?’” said Detective Christopher Covelli with the Lake County sheriff’s office.
One of the officers, a military veteran, described it as a “muffled shot,” which helped lead them to the area where they found Gliniewicz, Covelli said.
Officers Shane Campion, Richard Howell and Todd Ebbing met up on a gravel road near a cement plant, then followed a path created by foot traffic north of a swampy area, according to the police report. One saw Gliniewicz lying face down, not moving in tall grass near the tree line and called out “officer down, possible shots fired.”
When they reached Gliniewicz, he was unconscious, not breathing and his “hand was empty in a position that would lead to believe he was possibly holding a gun,” according to the police report. His gun was missing and his radio was near his feet.
One of the officers went back to lead two more officers to the scene. Lt. Mark Schindler and Sgt. Dawn Deservi, the two latest to arrive, called out for a perimeter to be set up. Schindler left to set up a command post and Deservi asked for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, helicopters, Metra police, all Fox Lake afternoon shift officers and surrounding schools to be notified of what had happened, according to the report.
Covelli said it’s not clear how quickly they found Gliniewicz’s body because they did not call it in over the radio, but estimated only five to seven minutes could have passed.
Despite the fact officers were on the scene to hear the shot, Covelli said potential suspects would have still had opportunities to flee unnoticed.
“One of the things they didn’t do is call it in on the radio, which would have given us a better timeline, but there were so many escape routes … There was plenty of merit in the fact that there were three suspects,” Covelli said.
Authorities later determined Gliniewicz wasn’t pursuing anyone, but three men were questioned and released.
The officers later told investigators that in the emotion and high stress of the moment they didn’t think to call in the shot and immediately began searching for Gliniewicz and a trio of possibly armed offenders, Covelli said.
Attempts to reach the first-responding officers to the scene were unsuccessful.
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