• Home
  • News
  • Commentary
  • 13-Minute News Hour
  • Fresh Ink
  • Cartoons
  • The Loft
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • News
  • Commentary
  • 13-Minute News Hour
  • Fresh Ink
  • Cartoons
  • The Loft
  • About Us
Home ยป News

Chicago police commander gunned down in Loop pursuing a suspect

GOPUSA StaffChicago Tribune Posted On 11:35 am February 14, 2018
11


A Chicago police commander who had complained about the difficulty of keeping violent criminals off the streets was fatally shot Tuesday while pursuing a suspect in the Loop in a rare outburst of daytime gun violence downtown.

Cmdr. Paul Bauer, 53, was shot to death at the Thompson Center after chasing a man fleeing from tactical officers who tried to stop him, police officials said. Bauer, a 31-year-veteran who had been in the area for training and had a meeting with aldermen scheduled later, confronted the man, according to police officials and other sources. He opened fire, hitting the commander multiple times, police said.

Officers apprehended a suspect who multiple sources identified as a 44-year-old four-time felon and former prison inmate with an arrest record dating to at least 1994. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 1998 for robbery. The Tribune is not identifying him because he had not been charged as of Tuesday evening.

Officers recovered a gun from the man, who was wearing a protective vest, according to a source.

You Might Like
Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Bauer, a married father of a 13-year-old daughter, is the first Chicago cop shot and killed since 2011, and he is the highest-ranking officer killed in decades.

The incident briefly pitched the heart of Chicago’s business and governmental district into turmoil as emergency vehicles screamed down streets, office-workers looked on from sidewalks on a cold, gray day and police cordoned off sections of the downtown district that includes the engines of state, city and county government. Crestfallen officers grouped outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital before Superintendent Eddie Johnson, appearing to choke back tears, announced that Bauer had died.

Shortly after that, officers on foot and horseback saluted as a procession of more than a dozen police vehicles pulled away from the hospital to accompany the ambulance on its way to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

“I just ask the citizens of this city to keep the Bauer family in their prayers,” Johnson said.

After ascending the department ranks, Bauer assumed leadership in 2016 of the Near North District, just north of where he was shot. In that role, he publicly vented frustration about the difficulty of clearing repeat offenders from the street– a common refrain among Chicago police and political officials who confront a stubborn violent crime rate driven in part by recidivism.

“We’re not talking about the guy who stole a loaf of bread from the store to feed his family,” he said in November 2017, according to the Loop North News. “We’re talking about career robbers, burglars, drug dealers. These are all crimes against the community. They need to be off the street.”

On Bauer’s street in the South Side’s Bridgeport neighborhood, neighbors remembered him as a considerate family man who attended services at the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church. After the recent snowstorm, he used his snowblower to clear the sidewalk for the whole block, neighbors said.

A neighbor who asked not to be identified spoke with tears in his eyes as he shoveled his mother’s car out of the snow Tuesday evening.

“I could count on Paul to come and help me with this right now,” he said.

The incident started just before 2 p.m. as a police tactical team sought to question a man near State Street and Wacker Driveabout “possibly some connection to a shooting,” department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.said. The man took off running.

Recorded police radio traffic captured an officer saying, “Don’t anybody get hurt. We just wanted to do a street stop on him.”

Bauer heard the radio traffic, saw a man matching the description and tried to approach and question him in or near a stairwell, according to Guglielmi. A struggle ensued and Bauer, was shot multiple times.

Bauer was in uniform, Guglielmi said.

The tactical officers apprehended the man, and Bauer was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m.

Across the street from the Thompson Center, Noreen Janko said she was walking back to her office building when she heard shots.

“I heard ‘pop pop pop pop pop,’ ” Janko said. “And I said to the girl next to me, ‘Is that what I think it is?’ And she said, ‘Yep.’ I said, ‘Aw geez.'”

Two women who work at a bank in the Thompson Center said they heard shots and later saw a person being wheeled away on a stretcher with a sheet over him.

“I’m a little traumatized,” said Darlene Marrero.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was preparing to board a flight in Los Angeles to head home Tuesday afternoon when he was told of the shooting. He arrived in Chicago around 7 p.m. and headed straight to a meeting with Johnson, the mayor’s staff said. Emanuel said in a statement that Bauer’s death was a sad reminder of the perils of police work.

“Commander Bauer stood for the highest ideals of our police department and our city — to serve and protect the people of Chicago,” the statement said.

A statement from the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation called his death “senseless.”

“The idea that Paul would act so unselfishly and would sacrifice his own safety for the safety of the people of Chicago and his fellow officers comes as no surprise to those of us who knew him,” the statement read.

Tuesday evening, firefighters at a station near Bauer’s police district headquarters lowered their flags to half-staff. Anthony Goulet, 13, came to pay his respects to the officer he said he had recently met at a community event.

“He was nice and caring, and he wanted me to make sure I had my good grades,” the boy said.

Command officers represent few of the cops gunned down in city history, though the death of a top officer is not unprecedented. In June 1981, First Deputy Superintendent James J. Riordan was fatally shot in one of the Marina City complex downtown while he was off-duty and trying to disarm a gunman who had been harassing patrons at a restaurant.

Chicago Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Dawn Rhodes, Elvia Malagon, Dan Hinkel, Annie Sweeney, Liam Ford, Steve Schmadeke, Jason Meisner, Megan Crepeau, Bill Ruthhart, Jennifer Smith Richards and David Heinzmann contributed.

___

(c)2018 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

—-

This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 9.0/10 (3 votes cast)
Chicago police commander gunned down in Loop pursuing a suspect, 9.0 out of 10 based on 3 ratings
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
0
Shares
  • Share On Facebook
  • Tweet It




11 Comments

Glenn Van Acker
GlennVA
1:57 pm February 14, 2018 at 1:57 pm
Log in to Reply

I thought Chicago, N.Y.C. and D.C. had the strictest gun laws. With the rap sheet this felon had, no way should he be on the streets.

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 4.7/5 (3 votes cast)

    ltuser
    ltuser
    4:48 pm February 14, 2018 at 4:48 pm
    Log in to Reply

    He was on the streets cause the DA and judges up there, are too bloody idiotic to keep these liver criminals behind bars..

    VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
    Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
Joseph Morgan
drcbjmd
2:09 pm February 14, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Log in to Reply

Absolutely tragic. In one of the 3 ultimate gun free cities, already. Why was this felon still out on the streets?

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

backpacker
backpacker
2:14 pm February 14, 2018 at 2:14 pm
Log in to Reply

A four time felon. What was he doing on the streets? Liberalism = no one should be punished for the felonies they commit.

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 5.0/5 (3 votes cast)

    inluminatuo
    inluminatuo
    4:13 pm February 14, 2018 at 4:13 pm
    Log in to Reply

    Setup and build a sanctuary City where lawbreakers can live and feel safe, ,,,,and they will come, then nobody is safe. A good buddy of mine came home from Vietnam, only 3 surviving members of his original troop, dying to become a Chicago cop. 2 Weeks into the job he was shot and killed by a 16 year old in front of Cabrini Greens while writing a traffic ticket. This is what Democrats have turned Chicago into, where only the criminal elements, both ordinary and political, get to find sanctuary in lawlessness in the lawless mindset they encourage in their own citizens.

    VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
    Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)
      ltuser
      ltuser
      11:36 pm February 14, 2018 at 11:36 pm

      That is why i can’t understand WHY ANYONE with half a brain, would want to be a cop IN chi-raq.

      VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
      Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
    ltuser
    ltuser
    4:48 pm February 14, 2018 at 4:48 pm
    Log in to Reply

    IMO that is why ANY JUDGE who lets repeat felons out, like this scumbag, should be held and charged as an ACCOMPLICE TO EACH AND EVERY CRIME those felons commit while out..

    VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
    Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
Michael Jones
Banergydragon
3:09 pm February 14, 2018 at 3:09 pm
Log in to Reply

This is sad that a Officer of the Law, complaining about keeping ‘felons’ off of the street, had to prove his point by ‘giving his last full measure of devotion’ to his family, his job, his city, his country.
Wake up Cook County. Wake up!

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

    ltuser
    ltuser
    4:50 pm February 14, 2018 at 4:50 pm
    Log in to Reply

    I doubt the plebs up there, will ever ‘wake up’..

    VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
    Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
usn1
usn1
3:35 pm February 14, 2018 at 3:35 pm
Log in to Reply

Why is the guy still alive.

VN:D [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 5.0/5 (3 votes cast)

    ltuser
    ltuser
    4:51 pm February 14, 2018 at 4:51 pm
    Log in to Reply

    To me, cop killers and illegal aliens who kill US citizens should all be publicly EXECUTED!

    VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
    please wait...
    Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • Login or Register

    • Click here to login or use the link below to register and start making comments.
    • Register
    • You can also make comments using one of your existing social media accounts.
  • Comment using:

  • Get our Newsletter!

    Sign up for our daily newsletter. It's free!
    Click here to subscribe.
  • advertisement
  • Hot Topics

    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sees no difference in 'Berlin Wall' and border wall Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sees no difference in ‘Berlin Wall’ and border wall 57 comments
    • Open Border Advocates Use Butterflies and Birds as Excuse to Stop Border Security Open Border Advocates Use Butterflies and Birds as Excuse to Stop Border Security 54 comments
    • Returning ISIS brides are not welcome Returning ISIS brides are not welcome 44 comments
    • McCarthy-McConnell Republicans betrayed Trump, killed the wall McCarthy-McConnell Republicans betrayed Trump, killed the wall 43 comments
    • Andrew McCabe says the investigations into Donald Trump faced no congressional pushback Andrew McCabe says the investigations into Donald Trump faced no congressional pushback 42 comments
  • Recent Comments

    • "You democrats sink to new lows every day. You cannot even leave a little kid alone. Your sick. Worthless fools." Comment by Repossess America
      Posted in Austin boy called ‘Little Hitler’ for selling hot chocolate to raise ‘over $9,000’ for border wall
    • "Good job, Benton. I thank you. America thanks you. maybe we'll see you in the WH one day." Comment by judyg
      Posted in Austin boy called ‘Little Hitler’ for selling hot chocolate to raise ‘over $9,000’ for border wall
    • "Probably another FF, just to fit the left's narrative. something to try to get the news cycle off of Jesse and his self-induced hate crime. If it is sustantive, ther'd be pictures and web site Alt-Right stuff, but they probably need time to create it... (Some FF's likely have to get rushed when needed )" Comment by Khemist
      Posted in Christopher Paul Hasson had weapons, hit list of Democrats

  • Bringing the Conservative Message to America

    Get our Newsletter!

    Sign up for our daily newsletter. It’s free!
    Click here to subscribe.

  • Hot Topics

    • Louis Farrakhan calls for separate state for Black Americans, says that's 'what God wants' Louis Farrakhan calls for separate state for Black Americans, says that’s ‘what God wants’ 140 comments
    • Green New Deal:  Say Goodbye to Your Farting Cows and Airplanes Green New Deal: Say Goodbye to Your Farting Cows and Airplanes 122 comments
    • Still bitter Meghan McCain slams Jared and Ivanka for coming to her father's funeral; promises never to forget Still bitter Meghan McCain slams Jared and Ivanka for coming to her father’s funeral; promises never to forget 114 comments
    • Nike responds to thousands of angry Muslims who want 'blasphemous' shoe recalled Nike responds to thousands of angry Muslims who want ‘blasphemous’ shoe recalled 105 comments
    • Chuck and Nancy crow after Trump temporarily ended government shutdown at 35 days Chuck and Nancy crow after Trump temporarily ended government shutdown at 35 days 94 comments
  • advertise

Press enter/return to begin your search