Backup officers followed a trail of equipment to the Army veteran’s body, about 50 yards from his squad auto.
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Conservatives rallied around the officer as a “hero”, but authorities say he staged a carefully crafted suicide just before his theft was about to be exposed.
Gliniewicz, 52, was a 30-year police veteran and expert crime scene investigator, his boss said, and took elaborate steps to try to make it look like he died in a struggle, including shooting himself twice in the torso.
But on Wednesday, more than two months after Gliniewicz was found dead in Fox Lake, a small town northwest of Chicago, law enforcement officials said the truth was something very different: He took his own life.
Lawyers for the Gliniewicz family said the family has no comment on Wednesday’s news and continues to cope with his death.
Gliniewicz, a 52-year-old father of four, oversaw the Fox Lake Police Department’s Explorers program, which engages youths interested in police work with various aspects of the field.
The organizer of the canceled Antioch High School fundraiser, retired LaGrange Officer Jack Kielczynski, said he planned the event to benefit Gliniewicz’s family because policing is “a brotherhood”, but canceled it in light of Wednesday’s events. The area where Gliniewicz died is near an industrial complex and far from homes or apartments that three three fictitious suspects might have an interest, in say, burglarizing (in broad daylight).
Gliniewicz’s family had dismissed the suggestion of suicide. That shot hit Gliniewicz’s pulmonary artery and he suffered massive blood loss. Three men were found by investigators, but police quickly discounted them as suspects. That prompted an angry response from Filenko, who said releasing such details put “the entire case at risk”. “Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served and to the law enforcement community”.
On September 1, investigators say Gliniewicz drove on patrol to a secluded area and radioed that he was following three men.
A letter in the file dated February 1, 2009, addressed to then-Mayor Cynthia Irwin and signed only by “Anonymous Members of the Fox Lake Police Department” outlined complaints about Gliniewicz that included: allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate officer, complaints from bouncers at local bars for being drunk and belligerent, and allegations he allowed members of the youth program unsupervised access to the police department and to wear clothing labeled “police”, misidentifying themselves as officers. But as the Washington Post notes, recently released Federal Bureau of Investigation data show that assaults on police officers fell sharply in 2014 and are at their lowest point since 1996.
“Today has been another day of deep sorrow for the Gliniewicz Family”, the relatives said.
Manuscripts of text message conversations between Gliniewicz and two unidentified people were given out by investigators Wednesday, but sources close to the investigation have said those two were Mel and D.J., according to the Sun-Times. That giant of the civil rights movement said in a Friday interview that he doesn’t think that “black lives matter” protesters have focused enough on training.
Gliniewicz was suspended for a month from the department because of the relationship, but Fox Lake’s attorneys denied in court papers that Sharpe was forced to do anything.
On September 9, eight days after Gliniewicz died, the American Enterprise Institute declared 2015 the safest year for the police since 1887, that is, when Grover Cleveland was president. Powers now say this was a ploy, organized by the officer who had been taking cash from the office’s development program for a considerable length of time. “It’s quite unbelievable and nearly surreal”, she said, adding that police have assured her that she is safe.
– Tuesday, November 3: The Lake County Sheriff’s Office calls a Wednesday news conference to announce the results of its investigation into Gliniewicz’s death.
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On August 31, the day before Gliniewicz’s death, Marrin said she asked him for an inventory of the Explorer program.
