The Chicago Police Department is mourning two of its officers who were hit and killed by a train while chasing a suspected gunman Monday night, officials said.
Eduardo Marmolejo, 37, and Conrad Gary, 31, were chasing the suspect around 6 p.m. when they were hit by a train that may have been traveling 70 mph, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters.
The officers, both fathers of young children, died at the scene, Johnson said.
The two officers were killed “doing the most dangerous thing any police officer can do, and that is to chase an individual with a gun,” Johnson said.
A suspect was apprehended and a weapon was recovered, police said.
“These brave young men were consumed by identifying a potential threat to their community and put the safety of others above their own,” Johnson said.
Gary had been on the force for 18 months, and Marmolejo for 2 1/2 years, Chicago Police Department officials said.
“This knocks you back on your heels,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters.
“There are no words to express our grief, our sense of loss,” Emanuel said. “We as a city have to measure up and remind them, they’re part of our family.”
The deaths come just one month after Chicago police officer Samuel Jimenez was fatally shot in the neck while trying to protect employees and patients during a shooting at Chicago’s Mercy Hospital.
Other police departments, as well as other Chicago police districts, are offering an outpouring of sympathy for the latest Chicago officers, members of the department’s fifth district, killed in the line of duty.
Godspeed brothers. #GoneButNotForgotten #ThinBlueLine pic.twitter.com/BvbyCtihdA
