Investigation upends tragic hero cop story
An Illinois officer whose death triggered a manhunt long stole money, then ‘staged suicide,’ officials say.
FOX LAKE, Ill. — Upending the portrayal of a police lieutenant as a hero cop gunned down in the line of duty just before his retirement, authorities said the officer died in a suicide he staged as it became clear he could face consequences for years of criminal behavior.
Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, 52, shot himself in a “carefully staged suicide” designed to look like a murder after he had engaged in “extensive criminal acts,” said Lake County Major Crime Task Force Cmdr. George Filenko.
Gliniewicz stole a dollar amount in the five figures and used the money for personal expenses, including mortgage payments, travel and pornography websites, Filenko said.
The announcement marks a 180-degree turn for an investigation that began Sept. 1 with hundreds of officers, as well as dogs and helicopters, searching for suspects who never existed.
Gliniewicz, a 30-year veteran and a fixture of the village near the Wisconsin border, was laid to rest after a funeral attended by thousands at which he was portrayed as a selfless public servant and devoted family man who gave his life for his community.
The lieutenant, a heavily tattooed Army veteran known to many as “GI Joe,” mentored many youths through the village’s Explorers program, and some portrayed his death as evidence of an escalating war on police.
To the contrary, authorities said Wednesday, Gliniewicz staged his suicide as it became apparent that an audit of village procedures and equipment would reveal his purported thefts.“The facts of his actions proved he behaved for years in a manner completely contrary to the image he portrayed,” Filenko said.
About 8 a.m. on Sept. 1, Gliniewicz radioed in that he was pursuing two white males and a black male. After dispatchers lost contact with Gliniewicz, responding officers found him shot, with his .40-caliber handgun resting nearby. That touched off a massive but fruitless manhunt.
The finding of suicide could have serious financial consequences for Gliniewicz’s survivors, as the families of officers killed in the line of duty are eligible for benefits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, attorneys said.