Sources: Illinois Cop's Shooting Death Was Suicide

Gliniewicz investigators set to make stunning announcement
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 4, 2015 1:57 AM CST
Sources: Illinois Cop's Shooting Death Was Suicide
In this Sept. 7, 2015, file photo, the casket of slain Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz is loaded into a hearse at Antioch Community High School in Antioch, Ill.   (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune via AP, File)

After popular police officer Lt. Joe Gliniewicz was found shot to death on Sept. 1, a huge manhunt found no trace of the three suspects he had told dispatchers he was pursuing. It now looks as if they never existed. Sources tell the Chicago Tribune and the AP that at a Wednesday morning press conference, investigators will announce that they've determined that the Fox Lake, Ill., officer took his own life. The AP notes that questions about the case started to surface weeks ago, after the coroner said the 52-year-old had been killed by a "single devastating" bullet from his own weapon, and investigators refused to rule out an accident or suicide as the cause of death.

Gliniewicz, an Army veteran nicknamed "GI Joe" by the community he served, was a married father of four and a 30-year veteran of the Fox Lake force. Investigators will announce that he took his own life for "personal and professional reasons," according to the New York Daily News. In Fox Lake, residents say the latest development is upsetting and they have many unanswered questions. "It's a really messed-up case, and really sad for the community," a resident tells the Tribune. "I respect him, and I think he's a hero." (More Illinois stories.)

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