Here's How Officers Found Gliniewicz

They weren't far away when they heard 'muffled' gunshot
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2015 7:09 AM CST
Here's How Officers Found Gliniewicz
This undated file photo provided by the Fox Lake Police Department shows Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.   (Fox Lake Police Department photo via AP, File)

The three Fox Lake officers who found Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz on Sept. 1 were closing in on the cop when he took his own life, according to a police report. While walking on a gravel road heading to assist Gliniewicz—who had said he was checking out three suspicious individuals—the officers heard a shot that one described as "muffled." It led the officers down a footpath near a swampy area, reports the Chicago Tribune. Five to seven minutes later, the officers found Gliniewicz facedown in tall grass, per the report, released Thursday. He wasn't breathing and there was blood on his neck and coming from his nose, reports the Northwest Herald. His "hand was empty in a position that would lead [one] to believe he was possibly holding a gun," the report adds. His gun was missing, but it was later found a few feet away, reports ABC7.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a stash of "hundreds of pieces of military equipment" found in the basement of a community center where Gliniewicz ran his Explorers youth program, per Fox 32. Though the group was unauthorized to request equipment from the Law Enforcement Support Office program, text messages from Gliniewicz's phone allegedly suggest he forged the police chief’s signature to acquire the goods, including bulletproof vests, ballistic helmets, airsoft guns, gas masks, ammunition, flares, and computers. Police dogs also reportedly smelled drugs, though none were found. Police are trying to determine if Gliniewicz was selling the military surplus, though there's no proof of that yet. (Some people originally connected Gliniewicz's suicide to the "Black Lives Matter" movement.)

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