Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer was found dead Monday morning in a North Side police station in an apparent suicide, authorities said.
The officer was found shot in a locker room in a North Side police station, according to sources. He was assigned to the Town Hall District, 850 W. Addison St., law enforcement sources said.
In a statement, the department disclosed that the officer who died was James Daly, a veteran of the Police Department for more than two decades.
“He was a respected and dedicated 21-year veteran, and a friend to many in the Chicago Police Department,” police Superintendent David Brown said in the statement. “Today, I mourn alongside everyone in the Department. His loss is deeply felt by me and his many colleagues with whom he worked for many years.
“Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends who are now grieving over this unimaginable loss. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.”
Daly’s death comes about seven months after a high-ranking Chicago police official, Dion Boyd, was found shot to death by suicide in his office in the Homan Square police facility on the West Side.
Daly’s body will undergo an autopsy at the Cook County medical examiner’s office. If the office determines officially that he died in a suicide, Daly would be at least the 10th Chicago police officer to take his own life since 2018.
The police department’s problem with officer suicides was highlighted in a 2017 report by the U.S. Justice Department regarding the city’s policing practices. At that time, one Chicago police official told the Justice Department that department’s officer suicide rate was higher than the national average.
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