The Lake County coroner, Dr Thomas Rudd, said his head was bruised in ways that may have been intentional.
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The mounting pressure propelled the 30-year-veteran officer to carry out a carefully staged suicide that initially tricked investigators into believing he died heroically, investigators concluded.
Gliniewicz was hit by two shots.
Incriminating texts and Facebook messages Gliniewicz sent tell a different story, revealing his increasing anxiety after Fox Lake hired its first professional administrator, Anne Marrin.
The revelations stunned people in Fox Lake, a village of 10,000 about 50 miles north of Chicago where the 52-year-old married father of four had always been a role model.
On August 31, the day before Gliniewicz’s death, Marrin said she asked him for an inventory of the Explorers program. A federal official familiar with the ongoing investigation said that it is unclear if any federal laws were broken, which is what the Justice Department would look into.
Still more surprising was the explanation they offered. There were awful rumors. “I think that all fed into however he felt”, Marrin said. “They want their money back”. “I can’t answer that question”. George Filenko of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force said at a news conference. Several Fox Newsers were quick to make that connection just as Fox Lake, Illinois, police set out to find the three perpetrators Gliniewicz mentioned over the radio just before he died. The scene afterwards became fodder for wall-to-wall coverage on local and cable news networks: a massive manhunt that went on for hours; an investigation that ultimately cost $300,000.
His ruse began to unravel, however, after investigators saw no signs that he fought for his life, or that his body was dragged after the initial shot, Filenko said.
Authorities said in October that the officer, 52, was shot with his own weapon.
As a leader in the police “explorer” program, Gliniewicz had extensive experience mocking up crime scenes to train aspiring cops, and officials say he used those skills to throw police off the trail of his deception. A source involved in the investigation told CNN in September that Gliniewicz’s gun was sacked, but it wasn’t clear who pulled the trigger. Asked on Wednesday whether that evidence will now be destroyed, Filenko said he didn’t know. He said the intention was “never to mislead” the public on the death investigation, Filenko said, and the case was first investigated as a homicide.
The backups arrived about 8 a.m. and a few minutes later found Gliniewicz dead. “He was a nice guy, that’s all I know”. “A suicide, a homicide, an accident”, Dr. Rudd said. “To betray the police profession and the community is just absolutely appalling. It’s a complete betrayal”, Filenko said.
Potoczny said the vehicle – which features a lieutenant’s badge, an American flag and Gliniewicz’s name – is sitting in a warehouse. We uncovered that deception. “We lost a family member”, Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit said at a news conference. A ruling 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.
Gliniewicz was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time he was shot, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.
“Today has been another day of deep sorrow for the Gliniewicz family”, the family wrote in the statement.
“This is not the only incident of this”, conservative firebrand Andrea Tantaros interrupted, teeing up co-host Sandra Smith to introduce the Fox Lake incident.
“I don’t know the truth”, said Naile Hasane, 76. I am really upset about this. Police say they determined that the report was false and arrested the woman. “Shock. Everybody’s in shock”. “We conducted a thorough investigation with the support of the FBI and other agencies who worked in lockstep with us by providing us support and all of this information that ultimately led to this conclusion”.
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Investigators say Gliniewicz, a man known as GI Joe from his time in the military, led a double life. Thousands attended his funeral, and many lauded him as a hero.
