'Devastating Tragedy' for Chicago Police

2 officers struck, killed by train
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 18, 2018 1:36 AM CST
Updated Dec 18, 2018 6:36 AM CST
2 Chicago Police Officers Struck, Killed by Train
Passengers sit on a train while police officers work the scene where two officers were killed after they were struck by a South Shore train near 103rd Street and Dauphin Avenue on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, in Chicago.   (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

The number of Chicago police officers killed in the line of duty this year doubled in a single tragic incident Monday night. Police say officers Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Conrad Gary, 31, were struck and killed by a train on the city's South Side while investigating a report of shots fired, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Police say the two men were chasing a suspect up the train tracks when they were hit around 6:20pm by an eastbound train. "There was no stop at that location so the train was probably going somewhere between 60 and 70 miles per hour," Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters.

"These brave young men were consumed with identifying a potential threat," Johnson said. He said a suspect was arrested at the scene and a weapon was recovered, the AP reports. Marmolejo and Gary, who were both fathers, are the third and fourth police officers killed in the line of duty in Chicago this year. Marmolejo had been with the department for 2.5 years and Gary for 18 months. "A devastating tragedy occurred tonight at 103rd and Cottage Grove," tweeted police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He said bureau chiefs and commanders would join detectives to retrieve the bodies. This is the first time two Chicago officers have died in the same incident in the line of duty since two officers were fatally shot after responding to a domestic disturbance in 1990, the Chicago Tribune reports. (More Chicago stories.)

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