http://www.secondcitycop.blogspot.com/

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/blog/

A police officer coming home from an overnight shift guarding Mayor Richard Daley's home died after exchanging gunfire with men apparently trying to steal his new car or rob him in his South Side neighborhood, police said.

Michael R. Bailey, 62, a 20-year veteran weeks from retirement, was shot a little after 6 a.m. while cleaning his Buick –– a retirement gift to himself –– in the 7400 block of South Evans Avenue, police said.

He was pronounced dead at 6:41 a.m. at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.

Bailey was assigned to the Central District and had been stationed overnight at the mayor's home, police said. Bailey was about a month away from turning 63, the mandatory retirement age for Chicago police officers.

He had just gotten home and was still in his uniform when as many as three men approached, a source said. Preliminary information indicates Bailey announced he was an officer, and there was an exchange of gunfire between Bailey and at least one of the men, a source said.

The officer's son, who was home at the time, grabbed one of his father's guns and ran outside after he saw his father on the ground, the source said. It was unclear if the son fired any shots at the attackers.

The men fled and were being sought this afternoon, the source said. Three handguns, including one belonging to Bailey and another believed to belong to the assailants, were found at the scene.

"We heard (his daughter) screaming 'They shot my daddy, somebody shot my daddy!' " said a neighbor, Angelece Cook.

Laying directly in front of his new Buick was Bailey, wearing his uniform with a wind breaker. Sitting on the grass nearby was a bottle of Windex. "He's had the car three weeks. Every time he came home he wiped it down," her husband Ryane Cook said.

The shooting marks the third death of an off-duty Chicago police officer in the last two months.

On July 7, Officer Thor Soderberg had just gotten off work from a police station in Englewood and was heading to a volleyball game when he got into a struggle with a man who took his gun and shot him.

On May 19, Officer Thomas Wortham IV was shot outside his parents' home in Chatham by men trying to steal his motorcycle.

Early indications are that, like Wortham, Bailey was killed when men tried to rob him, possibly of a new Buick that sources said he bought to celebrate his retirement.

In both cases, relatives came to the officers' aid: Wortham's father, a retired Chicago police officer, came out of his home and opened fire on his son's assailants; Bailey's son tried to go after his father's assailants with one of his father's guns.

In a statement, Daley called the officer's death "a tragic, stunning reminder of the senseless violence that stalks too many of our neighborhoods. Another Chicago police officer gunned down, this time just weeks before leaving a long career of protecting Chicago. It's absolutely outrageous. Our prayers go out to family of Officer Bailey. I knew him. He was a good man. He did not deserve this."

Beatrice Cuello, assistant superintendent for administration for the Police Department, spoke this morning outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital before a police motorcade took the officer's body to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

"Words cannot express the shock, sorrow and outrage we feel at the loss of a Chicago police officer; this is the third brave officer killed since May," she said. "The job of being a police officer is incredibly rewarding each day we have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. At the same time, being a Chicago police officer is incredibly dangerous and it is the risk we accept without hesitation because of the overwhelming commitment to public service."

She said the latest officers killed, "embodied the commitment to public service and the willingness to sacrifice their lives protecting all of us." (Click HERE to listen to an audio recording.)

Mark Donahue, president of the police union, called the officer's death a "great loss."

"The frequency which we are experiencing this is extremely disturbing, but it does go along with what's happening in our communities," Donahue said. "It's unfortunate. Times have come where we have to readjust with how we police, to bring situations like this to an end.

"It's time to let the police be the police and take the handcuffs off the police ... tighten up the rules and regulations in our court system. We need to do something." (Click HERE to listen to an audio recording.)

At the scene this morning, Bailey's black Buick was parked outside his home, with a bullet hole in the windshield. Near the car were up as many as 17 police evidence markers, apparently showing the locations of shell casings and what appeared to be a handgun.


A Chicago police detective looks at shell casings and bullet holes in Police Officer Michael R. Bailey's black Buick at the scene where a Chicago police officer was killed this morning. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

According to police bulletins, officers are seeking a older model tan Ford pickup truck that may have bullet holes on the driver side. It was last seen heading south on Evans.

Police are also looking for a black male in his late teens or early 20s, with a tall, slim build and very short hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans with a long brown belt and was last seen running east across a vacant lot near the scene.

The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation offers an automatic, $10,000 cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who shoots or shoots at a Chicago police officer.

Neighbor Ericka White, 14, said she was sitting on her porch shortly after 6 a.m. when she heard several gunshots.

"We just heard it. Shots went off three times, stopped and went off two more times," she said. "We ran inside the house when we heard the shooting."

Another neighbor, Aleiya Harrington, 14, said she saw the officer putting things in the car every morning around 6 a.m.

Stephanie Tatum said she received a phone call from the officer's wife at 6:11 a.m., telling Tatum that he was shot.

Tatum, who said the officer was godfather to her two sons, said she met him when they were classmates at Chicago State University.

Vincent Dove, 32, of Dolton, knows Bailey's children and grew up a few houses away from the officer's home. A relative called him this morning to let him know about the shooting in his old neighborhood.

"Back in high school, I could have gone two different ways," said Dove."He'd tell me that my mom worked too hard for me not to go to school."

Officers who worked with Bailey told WGN-TV that he loved his job as a police officer, so much that he would not have been retiring if he weren't required by law to do so. They said Bailey always went out of his way to pass on any knowledge of policing he had to younger officers –– and he was affectionately known as "Old timer" among other officers.

The Central District had been planning Bailey's retirement party, Officer Kevin Brown told WGN-TV. Bailey's death was "heartbreaking," especially given Bailey's years on the force, Brown said.

"The sergeant last week wanted to meet with us and we were like, 'Aw, what does he want to meet with us for?'" Brown said. "He said, 'We have some important business to discuss.' We're like, 'What's that?' 'We've got to talk about Bailey's retirement party.' I said, 'You're right –– that's important.'"

Click HERE for a list of Chicago police officers killed since 2002

–– Caroline Kyungae Smith, Jeremy Gorner, Serena Maria Daniels, Hal Dardick, Carlos Sadovi, Kristen Mack, John Byrne, Annie Sweeney and Randi Belisomo.

Dozens of police officers gathered near Northwestern Memorial Hospital to stand vigil for slain Officer Michael R. Bailey. (Carlos Sadovi / Chicago Tribune)

I wonder if it was real thugs or secret squirrel, government, "I told you so" thugs.

Daley has police guarding his home?

Fuck king daley with a rusty pipe.

Did the son have an FOID?

Well,since the cop was black and the killer was black (like the last one),we won't hear shit from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.

And yes,fuck that POS Daley that needs his fucking house guarded.How many man hours get put into that???

At least they'll be able to solve this pretty easy with the new registry that just opened up. I mean what criminal wouldn't register their gun?

Why was he washing his car at that hour? (sometime between 12am and 6am according to the article)



Seems fishy.

You've never worked a midnight shift, have you?



I get home a little after 6:00 AM and start working on my bike or truck as soon it's light enough to do so. Hardly fishy. When you don't want to do it in the heat of the day, the morning is your only other option.

Most governors and mayors of large cities do.

Well at least our president didn't come from a fucked up place like Chicago.........

Oy.  What's a resident of Chicago to do for protection when the very police officers they depend on to do that for them can't even defend themselves?

I mean, it's not like they city allows them to take the matter of their personal safety into their own hands (SCOTUS be damned)...

_MaH

I wash my car in the wee hours of the morning all the time... what's a night-shifter supposed to do?  It's a nice, quiet activity that doesn't bother my neighbors... and I can be a set of eyes-and-ears for the neighborhood at a time when most people are dead asleep.  I run to stay in shape in the wee hours also.  

Just another adaption to shift work.

Did they arrest Baily's son?

For what!!!?

and daley will push for more more gun control citing this bs.

rip officer.

But guns are illegal in shitcago. Why does that bag of fucking worm shit need a guard?

R.I.P. Officer Michael R. Bailey

Wonder what this cop got too close to... that they had to kill him over?

Thats a dumb statement! It was a robbery!
RIP officer..