OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) – An Oak Park police officer was shot Friday morning while responding to a report of a man with a gun leaving a bank. The suspect was also shot by the police and was arrested.
Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said Detective Allan Reddins, 40, had been with the Oak Park Police Department since May 2019. He was the first Oak Park officer killed in the line of duty since 1938.
“This is the worst day of any police chief,” Johnson said. “Our police department is hurting right now. I’m in pain. His family is in pain. Please keep us in your prayers.”
According to Johnson, Reddins responded around 9 a.m. to a call of a man with a gun leaving the Chase Bank in the 1000 block of Lake Street. Reddins and other officers encountered the suspect in the 800 block of Lake Street and told the man to show them his hands.
The gunman brandished a gun and shot Reddins in the left side. Officers returned fire and shot the suspect in the leg.
Reddins was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead at 10:10 a.m. The suspect was also treated at Loyola.
The shooting caught people in Oak Park off guard and left bullet holes in the windows of the village’s main library, which was closed to the public after the shooting.
A witness said she was at the nearby UPS store when she heard someone storm out of the store and then heard what sounded like gunshots.
“I knew it was gunshots. “I didn’t want to believe that,” she said.
Nicholas Gradishar said he was walking to a friend’s house nearby when he heard gunshots.
“I go downstairs after I hear the shots, and then I come to the library and see it’s littered with officers,” he said.
Gradishar said he saw police take the suspect into custody after he was shot.
‘They checked his pockets. They found a small gun, but on the side was an ARP with a flashlight. So I don’t know which one he used to shoot at the police, but he had several weapons with him. he said.
Gradishar captured images of the suspect on the ground with a gun nearby. Moments later he was taken away on a stretcher by parademics.
‘Nothing happens here. There may be a fight, but something like that will never happen here. So it’s wild,” he said.
A police procession took Reddins’ body from the hospital to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Friday afternoon. Dozens of police officers and firefighters from Chicago, Oak Park and other suburbs stood at attention and saluted as the ambulance arrived and Reddins’ body was escorted inside.
Johnson said Reddins leaves behind a 19-year-old son, along with his mother and siblings.
The chief described him as a “born leader, devoted father” and said she personally conducted Reddins’ background check before hiring him as an officer in 2019.
“I quickly realized he had a talent that was needed here,” she said. “He closed substantial cases and helped us resolve countless incidents. He was a natural,”
Before joining the Oak Park Police Department, Reddins had also served with the Metra Police Department. He had been a detective in Oak Park since 2022.
“I thought he would also be a phenomenal field training officer, and I was really looking forward to him becoming a sergeant. He was just a natural leader,” Johnson said. “He would always go the extra mile, go the extra mile, and that’s huge, to say what more can be done?”
The investigation into the incident continued on Friday evening. Johnson declined to say whether the shooting was captured on video, but said Oak Park officers are equipped with body cameras.
Information about Reddins’ funeral arrangements will be posted on the Oak Park village website as they are made.
Asal Rezaei
