Illinois Police Officer Kills Himself To Avoid Being Caught Stealing

The death of a Illinois police officer whose death led to a citywide manhunt last month, has been ruled a suicide. A well calculated suicide. 

52 year old Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz died on September 1st. Apparently he staged his suicided so well that it took a month for authorities to determine that it was NOT a homicide. Why would someone stage a suicide to make it look like a homicide? Well, there’s an answer to that too. Apparently Gliniewicz was a theif. 

According to reports, Gliniewicz stole money from the police department’s youth Explorers post. The program was set in place to teach young people about law enforcement work.  Over the course of seven years Gliniewicz had stolen thousands of dollars, allegedly spending it on mortgage payments, travel, handing out personal loans, a gym membership and adult websites. It was likely that an investigation by he Lake County Major Crimes Task Force was closing in on Gliniewicz so he decided to take the “easy” way out. Before killing himself, Gliniewicz also deleted thousands of text messages from his cellular phone. 

On the day of the suicide Gliniewicz was patrolling in an industrial area in Fox Lake, when he radioed dispatch to say he was going to check on suspicious activity he had spotted. He described the suspects as three males, two white and one black. Gliniewiciz called for backup, saying he was in a foot chase, then never heard from again. Responding officers discovered his body. He was shot once in his bullet proof vest (striking his cell phone) and once in the upper left area of his torso. Pieces of evidence, including some of Gliniewicz’s equipment, were spread over 300 feet at the crime scene, suggesting a struggle.

It was determined Gliniewicz’s gun was used in the shooting. Surveillance footage did not turn up any evidence of a chase. It was also noted that Gliniewicz had intimate knowledge of staging crime scenes as part of his work with the youth Explorers program. Days after Gliniewicz’s death the coroner said that they could not rule out suicide as cause of death. It looks like all evidence points to the gun shot wounds being self inflicted. 

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