The manhunt continues for the killers of a much loved and respected officer, 30-year-veteran Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz. The officer from Fox Lake was a married father of four boys and nicknamed “G.I. Joe,” for his toughness and professionalism. The police are searching for two white men and one black man who Gliniewicz described shortly before his death. He was found lying in a marshy area, stripped of his weapon and pepper spray. The weapon was later found. In another development, a woman has been charged with giving police a false report that may have cost them precious time and manpower in looking for the murderers of Gliniewicz.
Gliniewicz radioed to dispatch before 8 a.m. that morning that he was chasing three male suspects engaged in suspicious activity. There may be a deer camera videotape of the three males being reviewed today by police.
Helicopters, canine units, SWAT teams, and an army of state and federal officers have been deployed. However, they were sent in the wrong possible direction by Kristin Kiefer, 30, who has been charged with disorderly conduct and falsifying a police report.
Heifer called at approximately 9:20 p.m. from Volo, about 5 miles south of Fox Lake, to say that she had pulled over to the side of the road with car trouble when she saw two men, one white and one black, near a cornfield. She claimed they tried to get into her car, but that the men fled because they feared she was going to call the police. That is a major lead and led to a heavy deployment of resources at a critical time. Some 85 federal, state and local law enforcement officials, 11 police dogs and three air support units were redeployed. Kiefer continued to maintain that her account was true but eventually admitted that she lied to seek attention from a family that employs her as a nanny. The location was close to the family’s house.
It is truly a bizarre rationale for such a terrible and costly hoax. This was not some kid but an adult woman who seemed to care little about the impact of her actions on this community. In terms of hoax reports, this one would rank among the most serious and is likely to bring a very serious penalty.
In the meantime, citizens mourn the loss of this officer. His widow, Melanie Gliniewicz, and her four sons joined a memorial and said “My world got a little bit smaller with his passing, and he will truly be missed by all of us.” She added that he was my “best friend, my hero, the love of my life for the last 26 and half years.”
Comments to the same article:
http://northernpublicradio.org/post/some-details-still-classified-fox-lake-police-shooting
DebsterDoo • 2 hours ago
Fox Lake was suspended from the 1033 program due to some items being missing. I don’t know what they were, but there were some stuff missing. Joe was in charge of that program.
Not2obvious • 6 hours ago
They really are circling the wagons on this one. If it wasn’t suicide, he was killed by his own. Otherwise there would be greater outcry for justice in search of anyone else.
Snake Plissken to Not2obvious • 4 hours ago
It’s obvious that he killed himself. First of all a 30 year veteran with a military background and training experience does not make that many rookie mistakes. Secondly nobody shoots a cop with his own gun and not only doesn’t take the time to squeeze off a round to his head to ensure he is dead, but then takes the time to extremely carefully wipes down the gun as to remove all of the fingerprints except for the police officer’s fingerprints and place the gun right next to the body. Even the bullet to the vest and the one above the vest are the exact trajectory you’d expect from a right handed person who shot himself and tried to make it look like a murder, and the person heading up the investigation publicly flipping out because the coroner almost let the cat out of the bag a week into the investigation couldn’t have made it anymore obvious either.
This has been about covering up a suicide since day one and also dragging it out past election day. The Fed left the very next day because they knew there were no suspects for them to look for. The only question left is … was there anything illegal going on that caused him to commit suicide and if is were any other police officers involved. A few days after the election they will suddenly release a little more information and then quietly label it undetermined so his family can receive full benefits as if he was killed in the line of duty.
Not2obvious to Snake Plissken • 2 hours ago
Yeah, but if it was suicide: why hide it? To help with insurance fraud? Insurance companies will investigate how far the gun was , too. It’s a downer of a story no matter how you look at it. Was he a month from retirement, or looking for a job as chief somewhere?
Some Details Still ‘Classified’ In Fox Lake Police Shooting
By Katie Finlon • 10 hours ago
http://northernpublicradio.org/post/some-details-still-classified-fox-lake-police-shooting
“It’s been almost two months since Fox Lake Police Lieutenant Joseph Gliniewicz was shot on duty.
The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force released results from a ballistics report last month. It found Gliniewicz was shot twice.
WNIJ checked in with Chris Covelli, who is the Lake County Sheriff’s spokesman.
“One of the rounds hit his bullet-proof vest in the lower-right region of the bullet-proof vest,” Covelli said. “That specific area where he was shot, being shot in the bullet-proof vest, was described as being somewhat near the equivalent of being hit with a sledgehammer.”
Covelli says the other shot, which was in Gliniewicz’s upper chest region, was the one that killed him.
Covelli says there was gunshot residue found on Gliniewicz’s hands, but it’s unclear whether the residue was from Gliniewicz’s gun.
Asked how far the gun was from Gliniewicz’s body, Covelli says that information is classified.
“There’s certain information that — if it gets out there — when we speak to or interview anybody in connection with this investigation,” Covelli said, “we need to insure the information we’re receiving from them is first-hand information, versus information that they’ve heard through others or they’ve heard directly through the media.”
The investigation continues.”
“Investigation into Fox Lake officer’s death has cost $300,000, analysis finds”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-fox-lake-officer-death-investigation-20151007-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-fox-lake-police-edit-0925-20150924-story.html
Excerpt:
But while all of us give broad discretion to investigators and prosecutors as to what they reveal and what they hold back, we also expect more discrimination about releasing information after that early rush gives way to a more methodical pace.
The compounding complication in this case is that Gliniewicz was part of Lake County’s law enforcement family. That creates potential conflicts of interest — and leaves citizens with dots that may or may not connect. Example: On Sept. 9, Fox Lake issued a statement saying that the retirement of the village’s police chief four days before Gliniewicz died had prompted a routine review of “the Fox Lake Police Department’s processes, procedures, supplies, facilities, vehicles and available equipment.” Gliniewicz participated in that process and, upon his death, “the Village immediately made available to the Lake County Major Crime Task Force all the materials based on this review and other pertinent information in order to assist investigators.”
We trust that, by now, Lake County authorities know whether that information is relevant to this investigation. Say so.
We don’t suggest that there’s something nefarious about this lockdown on public disclosures. It’s just as likely that, given the high profile of the case, Lake County authorities aren’t sure how to proceed. If so, asking publicly for assistance wouldn’t be a show of weakness. In other jurisdictions, the Illinois State Police and the office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan have sorted through cases without big-footing local authorities. Similarly, the FBI and the office of U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon have experience in cases where local governments don’t have all the resources, or the independence, a situation requires.
We hope everyone in Lake County law enforcement treasures the outpouring of community support that followed Lt. Gliniewicz’s death. Citizens sympathized with the loss and did what they could to help or just tolerate the manhunt that disrupted their lives.
The flip side of that commitment should be more candor from investigators. Whatever the cause, the loss of this officer will be just as terrible a tragedy. The mourning of him will be just as intense. It’s OK to tell the full truth — including whether investigators think three murderers are still on the lam.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/09/fabricated-cop-shootings-add-fuel-to-fabricated-war-on-police/
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/25/mystery-deepens-around-death-illinois-cop-despite-lengthy-probe/
The the “Chicago Times”, John Kass article (link in previous comment):
Yet by withholding even mundane details of the case, the task force fuels speculation.
“So there’s a problem, and old homicide dicks like me can see it, and every cop in the Midwest is talking about it,” said a retired Chicago police detective I spoke to Wednesday in a suburban diner.
He’s handled hundreds of killings, from police suicides to mob hits, and he was on a local gun range the other day, qualifying for his concealed carry certificate.
Just then the range instructor asked if there were any questions.
“So I ask, ‘What do you guys think about this Fox Lake thing?’ ” he said. “And of course, they’re all police and everyone came up and we started talking. The sense among most of us is that this one in Fox Lake is a cluster (bleep).”
The tragedy is that it’s been more than two weeks since Gliniewicz’s body was found and there is still no definitive word whether it was murder or a suicide.
The Tribune reported this week that the death investigation was being conducted as a homicide — but also as a possible suicide. Yet even the slightest mention of suicide infuriates local cops and his grieving family.
Complicating matters is that, oddly, ballistics results on Gliniewicz’s gun have not yet been returned, nor has a gunshot residue test, said a spokesman for the task force. Two weeks at the lab in the death of a police officer?
The task force spokesman also would not answer questions about how close the gun was to Gliniewicz’s chest when it was fired, or even if the fatal shot came from the lieutenant’s own gun.
Gliniewicz’s last communication with his dispatcher said he was following three suspects before 8 a.m. in a rural area. The suspects were male, one black and two white.
Within minutes, hundreds of police from nearby jurisdictions fanned out, with helicopters overhead, snipers at the ready and police dogs hunting.
Three suspects fitting the description were later found on video, but investigators cleared them.
So, were there three other men, two white one black, in the same quiet rural area before 8 a.m. as Gliniewicz passed by?
And how were these other three completely missed by the hundreds of police on foot and dogs and helicopters actively searching for men of their description?
Gliniewicz’s family deserves an answer.
The people of Fox Lake deserve an answer, like the parents who brought their children to pray at Lt. Gliniewicz’s funeral, and police families that attended from near and far.
And the hundreds and hundreds of friends and neighbors who stood at attention, and departments that devoted precious resources and manpower to find the killers deserve answers.
What’s worrisome is that this one could be listed ultimately, not as homicide or suicide, but as “undetermined.”
And then there is no closure, no answers, nothing. His family and Lake County deserve more than that.
jskass@tribpub.com
“I’ve got a feeling there’s something wrong with this one.” -retired Chicago police lieutenant
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-john-kass-fox-lake-met-0917-20150916-column.html
“As that happened, a retired Chicago police lieutenant with two sons now on the job talked to me about the feelings among police, about the shootings and anti-police protests and the sense that they were all under siege.
“But a couple of days later, he called me again, saying simply, “I’ve got a feeling there’s something wrong with this one.”
http://wgntv.com/2015/09/17/two-weeks-after-fox-lake-officers-death-and-still-few-answers/
“An over-emphasis on and obsession with a “war on cops” would be dangerous and counterproductive even if it were true. But by every imaginable measure, it just isn’t true.
“When this false narrative comes from police organizations and their supporters, it’s at least somewhat understandable.
“When it comes from politicians, it’s grandstanding and demagoguery. When it comes from media organizations, it’s journalistic malpractice. And it’s almost certainly getting people killed.”
-Radley Balko, Washington Post
An excellent article by Radley Balko:
“Once again: There is no ‘war on cops.’ And those who claim otherwise are playing a dangerous game.” –Radley Balko
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/09/10/once-again-there-is-no-war-on-cops-and-those-who-claim-otherwise-are-playing-a-dangerous-game/
Excerpt:
Here’s Fox News earlier this week, shamelessly exploiting a tragedy to gin up outrage.
They certainly aren’t the only ones. Here are some more examples of media outlets and politicians spreading the hysteria: [refer to article]
…
Any murder of a police officer is a tragedy. (As is any murder of a non-police officer.) But media outlets, politicians, and police advocates do real damage when they push this false narrative about a rising threat to law enforcement. First, this sort of propaganda weights the public debate and discourse. When there’s a fictional “war on cops” blaring in the background, it becomes much more difficult to have an honest discussion about police cameras, police militarization, use of lethal force policies, police discipline, police transparency, training, police accountability, and a host of other issues. Of course, that’s precisely the point.
But there’s also a much more pernicious effect of exaggerating the threats faced by law enforcement. When cops are constantly told that they’re under constant fire, or that every interaction with a citizen could be their last, or that they’re fortunate each time they come home from the job in one piece, it’s absolute poison for police-community relations. That kind of reminder on a regular basis would put anyone on edge. We’re putting police officers in a perpetually combative mindset that psychologically isolates them from the communities they serve. Incessantly telling cops that they’re under fire can condition them to see the people with whom they interact not as citizens with rights, but as potential threats. That not only means more animosity, anger and confrontation, it can also be a barrier to building relationships with people in the community — the sorts of relationships that help police officers solve crimes and keep communities safe.
It also just makes for a miserable work life. If you’ve been trained to think your job is getting progressively more dangerous, and that a significant percentage of the people you encounter on a daily basis want to do you harm, you’re going to be less tolerant of dissent. You’re going to constantly be on-guard, on-edge, and jumpy. That isn’t a state of mind that’s conducive to de-escalation, that opts for persuasion over brute force, or seeks out peaceful conflict resolution. It’s a state of mind ruled by the limbic system, not the frontal lobe. And yes, it’s a state of mind that makes an officer more likely to reach for his gun. Again, this isn’t a comment on cops. It’s a comment on human beings in general.
An over-emphasis on and obsession with a “war on cops” would be dangerous and counterproductive even if it were true. But by every imaginable measure, it just isn’t true. When this false narrative comes from police organizations and their supporters, it’s at least somewhat understandable. When it comes from politicians, it’s grandstanding and demagoguery. When it comes from media organizations, it’s journalistic malpractice. And it’s almost certainly getting people killed.
One last point: I’ve seen some police officials and their advocates respond to these statistics by pointing out that even if assaults and killings of cops are down, anti-police rhetoric is increasing. Therefore, they say, they’re justified in proclaiming that there’s a war on the police. This is nonsense. Police agencies are government agencies. They’re government agencies in whom we entrust the power to detain, arrest, and kill. Yes, it’s true that some people are demanding more of those agencies. It’s true that personal technology is enabling people to create an independent video narrative of their interactions with police. It’s true that those videos have sometimes revealed police misconduct and brutality, and that police officers, like all people, sometimes mis-remember, misstate, and outright lie when recounting contentious, traumatic, high-stakes incidents. And it’s true that because of all of this, the public as a whole today finds police officers as a whole less trustworthy than in the past. It’s also true that some activists, pundits, and politicians are demanding more accountability, transparency, and training for police.
None of these things are indicative of a “war.” On the contrary, all of this new skepticism, criticism, forced transparency, and mistrust of the police is — again — coming even as violence against police officers is reaching historic lows. This is how a democracy is supposed to work. It’s something worth celebrating.
Instead, police groups and their advocates are claiming that the mere act of criticizing a government entity is akin to declaring war on it, and that therefore, police critics are culpable every time a police officer is murdered. (And given the way they ignore and abuse statistics, those critics are also apparently culpable for a lot of murders that never happened.) They’re essentially saying that exercising constitutional rights and participating in democracy are in and of themselves acts of violence. And in many cases, this is coming from the very people that the government empowers to use actual violence.
That is something worth worrying about.
Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.”
anonymous – so Radley Balko sits in his mother’s basement and blogs for WaPo. He, himself, wrote a book to help in the war on cops.
“Former cop charged with threatening officials in Fox Lake officer shooting case”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-fox-lake-police-shooting-threats-20150913-story.html
“Coroner Not Ruling Anything Out in Fox Lake Shooting”
“Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd said he needs more information from police, before he agrees to sign off on how the officer died”
http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Lake-County-Coroner-Breaks-Silence-on-Fox-Lake-Officers-Shooting-326100651.html