Video May Explain Why Cops Didn't Hear Train That Hit Them

Chicago police officers may have thought sound was coming from northbound train
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 18, 2018 2:57 PM CST
Chicago Cops Probably Didn't See Train That Killed Them
Mourners embrace as the procession with the bodies of two fallen Chicago police officers arrive at the medical examiner's office in Chicago, Tuesday morning, Dec. 18, 2018.   (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Two Chicago police officers may not have seen or heard the commuter train that fatally struck them because they were focused on another train coming from the opposite direction, a department spokesman said Tuesday. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said "very limited" video from a body camera one of the officers was wearing helped investigators piece together how the tragedy might have happened, reports the AP. The officers had run onto an elevated area of the tracks Monday night on the city's far South Side to investigate gunfire. On the video, they "clearly acknowledge" a northbound train just before the southbound train hits them, Guglielmi said. "They must have thought the sound they heard was the northbound train," he said. "They must have missed the sound of the train right behind them."

Officers Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Conrad Gary, 31, were doing surveillance after Shotspotter technology that detects the sound of gunfire alerted police about shots fired in the area. The man Mamolejo and Gary were pursuing was taken into custody by other officers a short time later, and a gun was recovered near where the officers were struck. Guglielmi said the man was being questioned and had not yet been charged with any crime. "These brave young men were consumed with identifying a potential threat," Superintendent Eddie Johnson explained to reporters at a news conference late Monday night. Both men were married with children. (Their deaths mark one first for the city since 1990.)

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