The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
November 5, 2015

Illinois: Police Officer Orchestrated "Carefully Staged Suicide" 
-----------------------------------------------------------------


 
In Fox Lake, Illinois, an investigation has found police officer Charles
Gliniewicz elaborately staged his suicide in September in order to look
like he had been killed in the line of duty. The probe also reveals
Gliniewicz stole and laundered money from a police department program
for at least seven years. On the morning of September 1, the officer
sent word over his radio that he was pursuing three people on foot.
Three minutes later, he requested backup. When more officers arrived,
they found Gliniewicz dead. The department then launched a massive
manhunt, with more than 400 law enforcement officers raking through
heavy woods on foot, in all-terrain vehicles and on horseback. The death
was originally investigated as a homicide, but on Wednesday the Lake
County Major Crimes Task Force commander announced the death was "a
carefully staged suicide, [which] was the end result of extensive
criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing." Before Wednesday's
revelations that the officer had in fact killed himself, his death had
been used by police groups to denounce the Black Lives Matter movement.
In September, Fox Lake residents gathered after Gliniewicz's death with
signs that read "Police Lives Matter," and the head of the national
Fraternal Order of Police told The Washington Post: "There's a hostile
element within the community at large."

 

.