Slain CPD Cmdr. remembered on second anniversary of his death
Two years after his death, the blue ribbons commemorating slain Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer are still tied to trees throughout Bridgeport, and his CPD portrait still hangs in windows all around the neighborhood he called home.
But on Thursday, he was memorialized at his second home — the CPD’s 18th District on the Near North Side, where Bauer served as commander until he was shot and killed in a stairwell outside the Thompson Center on Feb. 13, 2018.
Through whipping snow and frigid temperatures, Erin Bauer, his widow, said: “The world Grace (the Bauers’ daughter) and I knew came crashing down around us when Paul was killed.”
With more than 100 officers, friends and supporters gathered outside the station, Erin Bauer added: “He was not one for the spotlight, and I can see him up there shaking his head about this ceremony.”
Bauer wore badge No. 29 and a ceremonial bell was rung 29 times in remembrance.
Bauer was heading to a meeting at City Hall when a call came over the radio that a man had fled from officers on Lower Wacker Drive. Bauer saw someone matching the description — Shomari Legghette — and tried to stop him. The two men ended up struggling with each other in a stairwell outside the Thompson Center, and Bauer was shot six times.
Legghette was charged with Bauer’s murder. Jury selection in his trial is expected to begin this month.
“Paul Bauer is forever a hero that served our beloved city honorably,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday. “This man, his life inspires and unites us as a city.”
On Wednesday, Erin Bauer filed a federal lawsuit against the website Armslist.com. Erin Bauer alleges that site is where Legghette bought the 9mm pistol he used to kill Bauer.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages, and also to force Armslist to adopt policies that would prevent unlicensed sellers and sales to people barred from owning guns. If successful, the lawsuit would mark the first time an online gun marketplace had been held liable for a killing involving weapons sold from the platform.