Family members and mourners gather in the 8100 block of South Blackstone Avenue hours after an off-duty Chicago police officer was shot to death while returning to her South Side home, Saturday, May 6, 2023.
Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times
Chicago police on Sunday were still searching for gunman who killed an off-duty officer Areanah Preston as she returned from work to her South Side home.
But it’s unclear why police took more than 30 minutes early Saturday morning to arrive after gunshots were first detected by the city’s gunshot surveillance system, ShotSpotter.
Police say Preston, 24, was gunned down around 1:42 a.m. during a robbery as she showed up at her home in the 8100 block of South Blackstone Avenue, in the Avalon Park neighborhood.
But the first notification of a person shot happened at 2:15 a.m., according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
CFD was first alerted of a person shot when a police officer arrived at the scene and radioed that an off-duty officer had been shot, Langford said.
Officer Areanah Preston was shot and killed outside her Avalon Park home on Saturday, May 6, 2023.
Less than a minute later, an ambulance and a paramedic-staffed fire engine were dispatched to the scene, Langford said. They were both rolling less than a minute after that, he said.
But when the fire engine arrived at 2:23 a.m., the crew did not find a patient, Langford said. The police officer had already carried Preston to his squad car and rushed her to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she died.
Police have not released a timeline of when officers were first dispatched to the crime scene.
Police have also not released a description of the suspect or suspects in Preston’s murder.
Detectives were canvassing the neighborhood the day of the shooting, asking neighbors for doorbell camera video for the investigation.
Preston worked for CPD for 3 years, most recently assigned to the Calumet District. She was pursuing a master’s degree in criminology from Loyola University Chicago and would have graduated May 13.
Preston’s murder will be considered a line-of-duty death by the police department, entitling her family to additional benefits, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catenzara said Sunday.
An autopsy ruled that Preston died from multiple gunshot wounds, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Sunday.
Preston’s aunt, Norma Mhoon, told people in a Facebook video Sunday morning that it “weakens me to even think that she’s gone.”
“She’s a very good sweetheart. A very nice person: educated, intelligent in every way, striving for her master’s, her goals and everything,” Mhoon said. “She was just doing such a great job. And this happened to her. It’s unbelievable.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/SrdJtuI
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