A 59-year-old off-duty Chicago police detective was found dead in his Mount Greenwood home on Friday, and the death has been ruled a suicide. The detective’s body was discovered around noon on the 3900 block of West 104th Street. He had a gunshot wound to his head and was pronounced dead at the scene by authorities.
The Cook County medical examiner later confirmed that the death was a suicide. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling expressed condolences, asking that everyone keep the detective’s family, friends, and coworkers in their thoughts during this difficult time. The detective had worked in the Area 2 Division, which covers most of the South Side of Chicago.
This is not the first time the department has been affected by suicides. In 2023, at least three members of the Chicago Police Department took their own lives. One of these suicides involved a 29-year-old officer found in a West Loop residence in May, with a gunshot wound to the head. Another officer, Celal Cenker Surgit, 54, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his West Ridge home a month earlier. A third suicide also occurred, but details are not available.
Sadly, the department has seen a rise in officer suicides in recent years. Between 2016 and 2023, 31 Chicago police employees died by suicide. In 2022 alone, seven officers took their lives, with three of those deaths occurring in a single month during the summer and three more in just one week that December.
A report from the city’s inspector general released in 2022 showed that the department has struggled to provide enough mental health support for its officers. The department is aware of the problem and has been working to address it. Currently, there are 21 counselors available to provide mental health services to the department’s more than 11,600 officers. This is bringing the department closer to its goal of assigning one counselor to each of its 22 police districts.
Officers who need support can access counseling services through the department’s Employee Assistance Program, which is free, confidential, and available to all active and retired members of the police force, as well as their families.
