Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz in a 2007 Daily Herald photograph by staff photographer Steve Lundy.
FOX LAKE, Ill. — Officials vowed to search around the clock for the killers of a Fox Lake, Illinois police officer in a manhunt that has spread throughout northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.
Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, 52, a 32-year veteran of the Fox Lake Police Department was discovered gravely injured in a marshy area on the outskirts of the city shortly after he had radioed at 7:52 a.m. that he was chasing three suspcious individuals.
Gliniewicz was married and the father of four children.
Lake County sheriff’s detective Christopher Covelli said Gliniewicz died of a gunshot. His gun was found nearby, although officials declined to identify the murder weapon, according to the Daily Herald.
There will be a candlelight vigil for Lt. Gliniewicz at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015 at Lakefront Park in Fox Lake. MAP
Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit met with reporters and tried to describe the devastating impact on the small community northwest of Chicago near the Wisconsin border.
“Today, not only did Fox Lake lose a family member, but I lost a very dear friend,” Schmit said. “Understandably, our officers are having a very difficult day today.”
Tom Ahern, special agent and public Information officer posted on his Twitter feed Tuesday evening that an army of law enforcement officers are responding to assist in the manhunt for the killers of a Fox Lake police officer.
The shooting put law enforcement officials on edge in nearby communities as the search for three suspects, two white, one black, widened.
Metra commuter train service on the Milwaukee District North Line was suspended shortly after the start of the manhunt, but it resumed about 3:30 p.m.
Schmitt asked residents to stay inside their homes as the day wore on to allow officers to intensify their search.
More than 100 officers from local, county, state and federal agencies arrived to reinforce the manhunt, along with helicopters and tactical vehicles.
In Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which is northwest of Fox Lake along U.S. Highway 12, the main route from that part of Illinois to Wisconsin, a Walworth County Sheriff’s deputy crashed his squad into another vehicle while on his way to a reported sighing of the suspects.
The deputy was southbound on Wisconsin Highway 120 approaching North Bloomfield Road, with lights and siren activated, when he crashed into a pickup truck that had entered the intersection.
Neither the deputy nor the sole occupant of the other vehicle sustained serious injuries, and the individuals turned out to have no connection to the shooting, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
At the request of the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office the Wisconsin State Patrol is investigating the crash.