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Off-duty Chicago cop shot in SUV dies
By David Heinzmann
The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A 26-year-old man has been charged in connection with the slayings of Chicago Police Officer Robert Soto and DCFS supervisor Kathryn Romberg, Chicago police said Monday.
Jason Austin of the 500 block of North LeClaire Avenue was charged with two counts of murder and one count of robbery, police said.
Soto played a key role in finding Austin, said Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne.
“If we didn’t have Detective Soto’s own words, motive would have been open to speculation,” he said, adding that robbery was the motive.
After he was shot, Soto called 911 and said he been shot and was the victim of a robbery. He said three men had fled in a maroon car. Police found Soto’s empty wallet on the floorboard of his sport-utility vehicle.
Police had been questioning Austin since 10 a.m. Saturday. He was arrested at his home, police said.
As first reported by the Tribune on Saturday, police picked up the suspect Saturday morning after three days on the trail of an alleged robbery crew that investigators suspect committed the slayings, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
Soto, 49, and Romberg, 45, a supervisor with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, were shot early Wednesday in the 3000 block of West Franklin Boulevard on the West Side.
Romberg died at the scene; Soto died early Thursday.
“Two families still grieve but they are relieved,” said Police Supt. Jody Weis at a news conference held to announce the charges.
Police were tight-lipped about the hunt for the other members of Austin’s alleged robbery crew.
Austin has five felony convictions on his record, mostly for narcotics, police said.
Sources said earlier that Austin is believed to head a robbery crew based in the area near Kedzie Avenue and Ohio Street.
Authorities had a strong suspicion about the identity of the killer based on the description Soto gave of his attackers before he lost consciousness, according to two law-enforcement sources.
Saturday morning, police gang intelligence investigators and members of the U.S. marshals’ fugitive task force were canvassing the area around the crime scene when they interviewed at least one person who gave them information leading to the man they picked up later in the morning, said a third law-enforcement source.
Soto, a 23-year veteran, had been sitting in his SUV for more than an hour talking with Romberg. They were parked on the street outside her condominium.
Romberg, also a part-time real estate agent, lived with a daughter in her early 20s, according to neighbors.
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Tribune