by Police1 Senior Contributor Chuck Remsberg
A 53-year-old sergeant from a Chicago suburban police department collapsed and later died from a heart attack during a foot pursuit early Saturday [4/9/05]. The incident apparently resulted from a high school prank gone awry. Five teenagers have been charged criminally and are now free on bond.
The victim was Sgt. Daniel Figgins of the St. Charles (Ill.) P.D., a 27-year police veteran, who lived in Elgin, Ill. He leaves two daughters and a wife of 34 years.
At about 0120 hours Saturday, the youths “forcibly opened” a door to the sports center at St. Charles East High School, authorities said. Their intent, apparently, was to steal one of the golf carts used by the school’s security and plunge it into a retention pond as a “traditional” senior prank. They were spotted by a custodian, who called police. The four fled, but two of them returned later to retrieve bolt cutters they left behind.
Figgins was still at the scene and gave chase when he spotted one of the teens. The fleeing suspect ignored the sergeant’s commands to stop. He escaped temporarily when Figgins collapsed in a field two minutes into the chase, but was tracked down and captured after the custodian supplied a license plate number from one of the group’s cars.
Responding officers and paramedics performed CPR on Figgins but were not able to resuscitate him.
The teens, all 17- and 18-year-olds, were said to be good students and athletes who have been accepted to various colleges. An attorney for two of them was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying: “The families feel terrible. They boys feel terrible. It’s tragic all the way around…A lot of lives will be destroyed for something that was stupid.”
The group faces various felony and misdemeanor charges connected to the burglary but will not be charged with Figgins’ death, according to an assistant state’s attorney. Black bunting has been hung over the entrance to the St. Charles Police Department, and officers are wearing a black ribbon across their badges. This is believed to be the first line-of-duty death for St. Charles.