Duty Death: Sgt. Alan Haymaker - [Chicago]
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — A third-generation Chicago cop who was killed when his squad car crashed into a light pole shortly after 5 this morning along Lake Shore Drive north of Irving Park Road was responding to a burglary at the time of the crash, police say.
Sgt. Alan Haymaker, 56, was pronounced dead at 7:33 a.m. at Illinois Masonic Hospital after being pinned in the car.
Icy roads were likely a factor in the crash, which is being investigated by the Chicago Police Department’s Major Accidents Unit, police said.
Haymaker was a third-generation Chicago cop and had been with the department for 21 years, serving since December in the Town Hall district, Assistant Supt. James Jackson said.
“Words cannot express the sorrow we feel at his loss,” Jackson said.
Haymaker was the father of three daughters. He’d followed his grandfather, father and uncle into police work, which was “in his blood,” said his brother-in-law, Ron Vogelpohl.
Haymaker joined the Chicago Police Department after working as an assistant pastor at a former Evangelical church in Jefferson Park, and he brought a pastor’s sensitivity to his police work, Vogelpohl said.
“He treated his fellow officers and the public as human beings,” Vogelpohl said. “Hie religion was very important to him. He never forced it on anybody, but it came through in how he treated people, and it’s what made him such a great cop and great man.”
A keen guitarist and fan of classic rock, he “was proud to be a police officer,” Vogelpohl added.
The burglary Haymaker was responding to when he died was at Consolidated Communications, 3167 N. Clark, and one witness told police he saw two burglars, including one who smashed the store window, a police source said. A large amount of electronic equipment was stolen from the store, the source said.
The witness said the burglars drove off in a dark-colored car.
The burglary might be one of a series of “smash-and-grab” break-ins in the same area.
All southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive were temporarily closed after the crash.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times