Vietnam veteran James Nicoletti called crisis line...and blue angels showed up!

Vietnam War veteran gets unexpected help from Berwyn community after calling crisis hotline

ABC 7 News
By Cate Cauguiran
January 16, 2020

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Vietnam War veteran got help from an unexpected source when he needed it the most.

With little more than the clothes on his back, James Nicoletti called a hotline for help after moving back to his hometown in suburban Berwyn last week.

Police officers in Berwyn responded to his call, which started a series events that have changed his life.

"I had a hundred dollars in my hand when I arrived here in Chicago," said Nicoletti, a U.S. Army vet.

He hadn't eaten for days and was trying his best to hold on to the last bit of cash he had.

"I had to sleep in a bathtub. That's where I slept," he said. "I put blankets there on the bottom so I don't get cold."

He said his life was going down the drain, and that's when he decided to call a veteran crisis hotline looking for help.

"I thought, 'It's over. You know what? They're going to put me away,'" Nicoletti said to himself when Berwyn police officers showed up at this door.

That fear was quickly replaced by hope after responding Officer Ed Tovar and his colleagues embraced the veteran. They pooled together their own money to get Nicoletti a few groceries and toiletries.
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NYPD and Chicago lost two more officers to suicide

Hero cop sixth NYPD officer to take life in 2019

The Riverdale Press
By JOSEPH KONIG 
Posted July 7, 2019

Five months later, however, Preiss was dead, reportedly taking his own life outside his Nassau County home June 26. He was the fourth New York Police Department officer to commit suicide in June, the sixth this year.

He was 53.

It was early in the morning on Jan. 27 when Liam Amir Rodriguez decided it was time to be born.

Officer Kevin Preiss, right, smiles with officer Roland Benson and the baby they helped deliver in January. Preiss reportedly died by suicide last month.

Liam’s parents, Naida and Jerry, began to make their way to the emergency room, except there was one problem: The elevator in their North Riverdale building was out of service. The contractions were starting, and on top of that, Naida needed to use the bathroom, so she returned to the apartment.

“Developments being what they were, my daughter could not leave the apartment,” Liam’s grandmother, Rebecca Maitin later explained in a letter. Maitin called 911, and within moments, two 50th Precinct officers were at the door.

Officers Kevin Preiss and Roland Benson helped deliver a perfectly healthy baby boy at 2:20 a.m., in a narrow hallway. Two weeks later, Preiss and Benson returned with a gift bag of baby clothes.

“There is good and kindness within New York’s finest and New York’s first responders,” Maitin wrote. read it here

Officials: Sheriff’s officer shoots himself to death on Northwest Side

Chicago Tribune
Rosemary Sobol
JUL 06, 2019

At least seven Chicago police officers have committed suicide in the last year. And the New York Police Department just experienced four suicides in three weeks, spurring the department to seek “psychological autopsies” to analyze the officers’ actions.

A Cook County corrections officer has taken his own life in a forest preserve in the Forest Glen neighborhood. Graham Hyland, 40, died of a gunshot wound to the mouth, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Saturday determined Hyland’s death was a suicide. 

Hyland was found at approximately 9:45 p.m. Friday in the 5900 block of North Central Avenue, at the Ted Lechowicz Woods. Hyland was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
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If you decided to risk your life for a living...saving others, isn't it time you included saving your own life? #BrakeTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Sergeant Lori Rice Hopes Her Suicide Can Prevent Future Officer Suicides

Sister Of Chicago Police Sergeant Lori Rice Hopes Her Suicide Can Prevent Future Officer Suicides

CBS Chicago
By Dana Kozlov
April 29, 2019

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Police Sergeant Lori Rice’s sister is still reeling, trying to make sense of her sister’s suicide, but she hopes to help other officers now.

Leann Starr says when it becomes OK for one officer to take his or her own life, it becomes OK for another.

She wants to help prevent that.

“I think I still have to be her voice,” Starr says.

It doesn’t really help Starr to talk about her sister’s suicide. The 82 days since the veteran Chicago police sergeant took her own life have been devastating.

“I make dinner, and I listen to my daughter’s news of the day. And so I think I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, but suicide leaves a hole no matter who it is,” she says. “And you’re never the same.”

But Starr is slowly making sense of Rice’s last days, weeks and months.

She just made a video for the Chicago Police Department. It’s an outreach to other officers who may be struggling.

“That there is help. That they reach out for the help. And I’m passionate about families recognizing that these superheroes by day are just regular people at night.”
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Chicago Police Officer Found Dead

Chicago police Sgt. Lori Rice found dead in apparent suicide

ABC 7 News
By Will Jones and Alexis McAdams
60 minutes ago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 47-year-old off-duty Chicago police sergeant was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The officer was identified as Sgt. Lori Rice, a 21-year veteran of the police department who worked in the 12th District.

Rice was found at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of South Bell, just off Taylor Street, in a vehicle on Chicago's West Side.

This is the second suicide this year involving a Chicago police officer. Last year, four CPD officers died of suicide.

Sunday morning, a procession followed as the officer's body was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
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If you think they will not be there for you, think again. Did you see the line of police cars escorting her body? Do you think they would have helped her if they knew she needed it? #BrakeTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife

Chicago police officer committed suicide for New Year's Day?

OK! So, people decide to risk their lives to save other people...but do not include themselves on the "to do list" when they need help to live? Seriously something still so totally wrong with this especially when you consider that if they had a clue what PTSD, they'd discover there is no shame in the damn thing!

If you are still confused about what PTSD is then blame the people you've been listening too. 

Chicago officer 1st police suicide of 2019 as numbers continue steady rise

Altlanta Journal Constitution
By Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Jan 02, 2019

CHICAGO
A Chicago police officer fatally shot himself at his home on New Year’s Day, becoming at least the fourth officer the department has lost to suicide in the past six months.

Officer Dane Anthony Smith, 36, was off-duty when he died, according to CBS Chicago. Smith, who worked at police headquarters, died just two weeks after two of his colleagues, Officer Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Officer Conrad Gary, 31, were killed by a train as they chased a man they suspected of firing gunshots in the area a few minutes earlier.
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Chicago Police Officer shot himself in a patrol car

Chicago officer kills himself in police station parking lot, officials say
Chicago Tribune
Peter Nickeas
Julu 10, 2018

A Chicago police officer killed himself in the parking lot of the Calumet District police station Sunday night, according to authorities.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department confirmed the death Monday.

The officer, a 36-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the police station about 7:30 p.m.

He shot himself in a patrol car with his service weapon, according to authorities. An autopsy Monday ruled his death a suicide.
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Chicago Homeless Air Force Veteran feels love from community

Police Lieutenant Honored For Helping Rebuild Homeless Vet’s Newsstand
CBS Chicago
March 13, 2018

CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago police lieutenant was honored Tuesday for helping change the life of a homeless veteran.

The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation named Lt. John Garrido its officer of the month, saying he embodies the oath to serve and protect.

Garrido, a 27-year veteran of the force, was honored for working to help Anthony Johnson, who operates a newsstand at the intersection of Foster, Milwaukee, and Central avenues in Jefferson Park.

The lieutenant saw that the newsstand was run down, and inquired about its operator. That’s when he learned it was run by a homeless Air Force veteran.

Garrido created a Facebook page to reach out to the community to help build a new stand, complete with murals showcasing the neighborhood and the veteran turned newspaper salesman.
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Vietnam Veteran Beaten By Speeding Driver in Subdivsion

VETERAN BEATEN AFTER DISPUTE WITH SPEEDING DRIVER
ABC News 7
Stacey Baca
October 23, 2015

PALOS HILL, Ill. (WLS) -- Richard Jones was an Army sergeant in the Vietnam War and a Chicago cop who patrolled the Englewood neighborhood.

But now, he's a senior citizen living in suburban Palos Hills who was left with two black eyes, broken nose and bruises after he said he simply asked a speeding driver to slow down.

Last week, he and his wife were driving into their subdivision when a car sped past them - far exceeding the 10 mph speed limit. He approached the driver.

"I said, 'Hey, the speed limit in here is 10 mph," said Jones, 66, said. "There are children who play by the entrance of that courtyard."

Words were exchanged and then Jones said he was attacked.
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Dying Vietnam Veteran Last Wish To Help Other Veterans Heal PTSD

Vietnam veteran urges soldiers returning from Middle East to seek support for PTSD
Lake County Journal
By ANGELA SYKORA
Oct. 19, 2015

“The thing is, the PTSD worked against me. It made me less of a person than I could’ve been,” Patrick “Mickey” Hacke

ZION – Vietnam veteran Patrick “Mickey” Hacke has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for most of his life. Combat impacted everything from his jobs to his relationships.

Now 67, Patrick has terminal cancer and is in hospice care at his brother’s home in Zion.

He doesn’t know how much time he has left, but he wanted an opportunity to leave a message of understanding and support for the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, hoping they’ll seek the help they need to lead full lives.

Though he is bed-ridden and has trouble speaking, Patrick’s mind remains sharp, said his caregivers, including longtime personal caregiver David Pasieka, Gentiva hospice nurses David Cheesman and Michael Harnishfeger, and Chaplain Cheri Tuccy.

When he hears about soldiers coming home, Patrick feels concerned for their long-term mental and emotional well being.

“If I could talk to the young guys, I would feel so good,” said Patrick, who grew up in Waukegan and enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17.

A sergeant, Patrick served one tour of duty, fighting on the front lines. At one time, he was trapped in a tunnel for days. He also captured 37 enemy prisoners and was awarded the Purple Heart.

When Patrick came home, it wasn’t with the hero’s welcome that today’s soldiers experience.

“I was treated bad and I didn’t understand why,” he said.

Patrick tried to resume a normal life, becoming a North Chicago police officer. He lasted just a year, due to his PTSD.
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Chicago: WOUNDED POLICE CAPTAIN EXPECTED TO SURVIVE

1 DEAD, 1 IN CUSTODY AFTER ENGLEWOOD STANDOFF; WOUNDED POLICE CAPTAIN EXPECTED TO SURVIVE
ABC CHICAGO 7 NEWS
By Eric Horng and Paul Meincke
Wednesday, October 08, 2014

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A six-hour standoff in the 7200-block of South Lowe Avenue left Captain Ed Kulbida wounded, one suspect dead and one suspect in custody.

The standoff ended just before midnight. Police found one person dead and apprehended another suspect upon entering the apartment building.

"They used a flash bang and there was still no response. At that point it was time to make entry. They did it in a progressive fashion. I was listening to it the whole time. They did it perfectly. They did a really outstanding job," Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.

Police have not said how the standoff ended or how one suspect, Daniel Jackson, 42, died. Daniel Brown, 42, the other suspect involved in the standoff, has also not been charged.

The standoff began around 6 p.m. Tuesday when Chicago police and U.S. marshals were serving a murder warrant for Brown in the city's Englewood neighborhood.
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Chicago Police officer, Vietnam Vet tells why he serves

A cop's life: Police blotter

BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist
The hero file: Sneed's Friday column on the life of a cop netted the following letter from a Chicago Police officer that's worth sharing. The column was written in response to the killing Wednesday of Officer Thor Soderberg on the South Side. Here's the letter:

I am a Chicago police officer about to hit 20 years next month and also a Vietnam veteran, which often times seemed to be the same thing while on the job.


All of those things you mentioned were more than true . . . but I wanted to add just a few things. When we get up in the morning and put the uniform on, we don't plan to encounter trouble, we don't plan to run for blocks through gangways and streets in the dark after offenders. We don't plan on being told by a victim they don't want an offender arrested while holding their hand over a swollen eye, and we don't plan on having to stare down the barrel of our gun at someone who is staring down theirs.

We do what we did yesterday and today and will do tomorrow even in the light of another officer being murdered. We put on the uniform, go to roll call and into the street to serve and protect. We will think of Soderberg and other officers who have passed on but won't lose our focus because we still have to serve and protect.
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Police blotter

Chicago police officers capture 'faces of poverty'

Chicago police officers capture 'faces of poverty'
Thursday, February 04, 2010

Theresa Gutierrez
News Team February 4, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Some Chicago police officers doubling as photographers have captured images of poverty in the city while they are on the job. Their work is on display in a new exhibit.

Fourteen Chicago police officers took 28 photographs depicting poverty and the rarely captured lives of Chicago's homeless population. They are also students in Adler's master in police psychology program.

Lt. Patty Casey came up with the idea for the class project.

"It's difficult knowing sometimes that or feeling you don't make a difference and that's why we're trying to do this so that we can make a difference and bring it to the public's attention," said Lt. Casey.

Adler school instructor Frank Gruba McCallister says the class aims to make police officers more sensitive and compassionate to their surroundings.
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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7258624

4 charged with attempted murder of Chicago cop

4 charged with attempted murder of Chicago cop
August 30, 2009 8:59 PM
4 charged with attempted murder of Chicago cop
August 30, 2009 8:59 PM 102 Comments UPDATED STORY
Four men were charged today with allegedly trying to kill an off-duty Chicago police officer in a Southwest Side shooting that one police source said erupted when they mistook the gang-enforcement officer for a gang rival.

The officer -- whom Chicago Police Department officials declined to identify -- was driving home about 3 a.m. Thursday through a section of Little Village carved up as turf by the Latin Kings and Two-Sixers, rival gangs that have been fighting to dominate the local drug trade for decades.

The officer, who was wearing a jersey-type shirt over his police uniform, sensed he was being followed by a car with four people inside, the source said.
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4 charged with attempted murder of Chicago cop

86 city officers have answered duty's call in National Guard

Honoring those who serve and protect here and abroad
86 city officers have answered duty's call
By Angela Rozas Crime Scene
November 18, 2008
Over here, he was a police officer in the Morgan Park District, catching drug slingers on corners. Over there, he was a major in the Army, teaching the people of Afghanistan how to build hospitals.

If you bumped into Officer Michael Henderson at the training academy, where he works now, you might not know that he has been a military man for 17 years, earning enough rank to command scores of soldiers. That he is proud of every school his men helped teach the Afghani people to build. That he still feels the pain of sending three of his young charges home, shrouded in the U.S. flag.

If you met Probationary Patrol Officer James Kurth, you might think he seems a bit mature to be a rookie. But at 28, Kurth has already spent 11 years in the Illinois Army National Guard. In August 2007, just months after becoming a Chicago police officer, Kurth was sent to Kuwait to help repair aircraft engines, the same engines that would help fly soldiers to Baghdad and Tikrit.

There are 86 stories like Henderson's and Kurth's in the Chicago Police Department. Stories of officers who worked a district or a detective's desk for months or years, then were called to the front lines to fight or the back lines to rebuild.

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A boy's body found in missing Chevy Suburban

A boy's body found in missing Chevy Suburban
October 27, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Investigators were working today to identify the body of a child found in a car on Chicago's West Side, while family members of Oscar-winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson assumed the worst--that this was her missing nephew--and organized a noon church vigil.

The body was found in the white Chevrolet Suburban that police were looking for in their search for 7-year-old Julian King.

The Suburban with Illinois license plate X584859 was found in the 1300 block of South Kolin Avenue around 8 a.m. after police received a call of a suspicious vehicle. The SUV was towed away for evidence processing. Neighbors disputed how long it had been there. A resident of the block, LaShaun Bouie, 36, said it must have appeared after 3 a.m. Monday morning. Rasheem Jackson, 21, who lives a block away, thinks he remembers seeing it as early as Saturday. Police received a call for a suspicious car at 7 a.m.

If the boy is identified as Julian King, it will confirm detectives' worst fears because a law enforcement source said bullet casings were found in the boy's room on Friday. But the source said they had not found other evidence of violence in the room.

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http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/a-boys-body-
found-in-vehicle-on-west-side.html
linked from RawStory

Father relives trauma of son's shooting

Father relives trauma of son's shooting
The similar death of another Julian student shocks Ronald Holt
By Angela Rozas Tribune reporter
October 7, 2008
Ronald Holt was jolted from near sleep Sunday night when he heard the news. Another Julian High School student was shot on a CTA bus. Another innocent believed to be caught in the middle of someone else's beef. His thoughts, of course, went to Blair.

His son, Blair Holt, was shot on a CTA bus on May 10, 2007. The 16-year-old Julian student was shielding another teen from the spray of a gang member's bullets when he was killed.

Police charged two teens with the murder, saying Blair was killed over a dispute between two people he never met.

Ronald Holt thought of all of this Sunday night, the night Kiyanna Salter, 17, was killed near 71st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.


"It left me . . . distraught," he said Monday. "Aside from it being [an] almost identical, worst-case-scenario as Blair's fate was that day, but thinking also of another young, promising, productive life that has been cut short. Another life that has been taken too soon. That is the damaging and damning part in all of this."

Before his son was killed, Holt, a Chicago police officer, had seen many families lose their sons and daughters to violence.
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Chicago police officer shot, critically wounded

Cop shot, hurt critically
A Chicago officer and a suspect are both hospitalized in critical condition after a shooting early this morning.

A man in a parked car shot and critically wounded a Chicago police officer early Sunday morning on a residential South Side street, police said. The suspect was then critically wounded when officers returned fire.

Police Supt. Jody Weis said the 39-year-old officer -- a 14 year veteran -- was shot in the head and chest and taken to Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. His identity was not released pending family notification.

Weis said the suspected shooter was listed in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
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also
'My brother-in-law has been shot'
Video
At the scene, at the hospital
Photos
One dead, one critical in South Side shooting

Man arrested near Obama's home, Gun, bulletproof vest allegedly found in his car

Man arrested near Obama's home
Gun, bulletproof vest allegedly found in his car in Kenwood neighborhood
By Angela Rozas and John McCormick | Chicago Tribune reporters
1:41 PM CDT, September 23, 2008
A man was arrested near Sen. Barack Obama's home Tuesday morning after he refused to leave the area and a gun was found in his car, Chicago police said.

The man, who has not been charged, approached the security perimeter of Obama's residence, which is about a block from his Kenwood neighborhood home, at about 5 a.m. and was stopped by a Chicago police officer assigned to the U.S. Secret Service security detail, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for Chicago police.

The man drove up in his vehicle and got out of the car, and "appeared to be intoxicated," she said. The officer spoke with the man, who then left and returned shortly, she said. The officer questioned the man again, and then found a weapon in his vehicle, she said. The man, who does have a criminal history, did not threaten Obama, she said.

"He was not considered to be an imminent threat and he didn't make any threats," she said.
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Chicago police tie low arrests to poor morale

Chicago police tie low arrests to poor morale
While serious crime is up, some say resentment of new chief, fear of internal investigation is behind deliberate work slowdown
Associated Press
September 19, 2008
CHICAGO - Serious crime is up but arrests are down in Chicago, and some police officers say they are working the streets less aggressively out of resentment toward their new chief and fear of being second-guessed by him.

"People are doing just what they need to get through" their shifts, said Lt. Robert Weisskopf, president of the Chicago police lieutenants union, "and not any extra."

In addition to making fewer arrests, police are seizing fewer guns and frisking gang members less often than they did before Superintendent Jody Weis was brought in to clean up a department embarrassed by a string of brutality cases, according to interviews, statistics provided by police and an internal document obtained by the Associated Press.

Department spokeswoman Monique Bond disputed the notion of any deliberate slowdown by police, saying, "There is nothing that we have to prove or support a theory like that."


She suggested instead that the drop in arrests means officers are focusing on serious crimes instead of such offenses as disorderly conduct and public drinking.

But some members of the police department, both publicly and privately, blame low morale and fear of investigation by Weis, a former FBI agent who took over in February.

"If I see a crime happening, I take action," said an officer who has more than 25 years on the force and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "But I don't go out of my way to stop someone on a hunch or if they look suspicious. I don't want to be accused of racial profiling and run afoul of this guy who we know won't back us up."
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Police: Cop kills daughter, commits suicide

Police: Cop kills daughter, commits suicide
Young son also critically wounded
By David Heinzmann and Deanese Williams-Harris Chicago Tribune reporters
3:06 PM CDT, September 15, 2008
An off-duty Chicago police officer shot his young son and daughter, then committed suicide inside his home on the Southwest Side Monday morning, officials said. The girl later died.

The children were found with bullet wounds to their bodies inside the officer's home in the 2700 block of West 43rd Street, about 10:45 a.m., police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

The man was found with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head, she said. Officials have given varying ages of the children, but public records show the girl was 7 years old and the boy was 9.

The man and two children have not been identified by authorities. The children were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition, and the girl was pronounced dead at 11:52 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. She appeared to have been shot in the head, an office spokesman said.


The man, who a police spokeswoman said was a 4-year veteran of the department who worked in the Englewood District, was pronounced dead at 12:22 p.m. at the scene. He was described as in his late-20s.
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