Chicago’s police oversight agency sought the dismissal of a Chicago police officer who lost his loaded gun during a drunken fight at a Milwaukee bar, but he was suspended instead and later left for a suburban police department.
Officer Robert Pet had traveled to Milwaukee nine days before Christmas in 2018, according to a report made public this week by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. After having dinner, going to a concert and hanging out at a bar — all while toting a loaded gun — he went to another tavern.
That’s where he pointed a bullet magazine against a man’s chest during an argument and was quickly pummeled by a group of patrons, one of whom wrestled the gun away, the report states.
Pet, who was arrested, struggled to recall the incident during interviews with investigators.
COPA called for the officer’s dismissal, saying “his dangerously poor judgment is not befitting of a sworn officer and renders him ill-suited to continue to serve in his capacity as a police officer.”
Ultimately, though, the city reached a settlement with Pet in August 2021, handing down a 180-day suspension instead.
Despite COPA’s findings, Pet was hired by the police department in northwest suburban Wauconda last September — a day before the Chicago Police Department listed him as “inactive,” according to a CPD spokeswoman and state law enforcement records.
Wauconda Police Sgt. Heather Cognac said Pet’s hiring hinged on the final determination of his disciplinary case. Cognac claimed “COPA was advised of this agreement and responded that they had no objections.”
“Officer Pet was reinstated to full duty status by [the] Chicago Police Department prior to his employment with [the] Wauconda Police Department,” Cognac said.
A COPA spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pet had been hired by the CPD in June 2017, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. His parents were both Chicago police officials, and his mother presented him with his late father’s star in a ceremony late that December, the department wrote on Twitter at the time.
COPA’s report raised serious questions about his fitness as an officer, warning that his behavior that night in December 2018 amounted to “a profound lapse in judgment.”
“What should not be deemed mitigating is that no one was injured,” COPA said. “Officer Pet’s actions surely put that possibility in motion.”
When Milwaukee police officers arrived at the Rogue’s Galley bar, they confronted Pet about “another altercation earlier in the night” and he initially refused to answer questions or submit to sobriety testing, according to the report.
When police obtained a warrant to draw his blood four hours later, Pet’s blood alcohol content was 0.11%, higher than the 0.08% limit to drive in Wisconsin.
During his arrest, Pet said he was a Chicago cop and “his firearm was missing,” the report states. His gun had been handed over to police after he was disarmed during the melee.
In an interview with COPA in April 2020, Pet acknowledged he had a spotty recollection of the night and couldn’t say how much liquor he had consumed. He also didn’t remember pulling out the magazine, being punched or exactly what happened to the gun.
He was charged with a misdemeanor count of operating a firearm while intoxicated, but the charge was amended to disorderly conduct, a non-criminal municipal offense, the report and court records show. He pleaded no contest and was fined $250.
COPA also sustained three disciplinary allegations, finding he had become intoxicated while off the clock, took an unnecessary verbal altercation and displayed the magazine.
“Officer Pet’s actions were criminal in nature and brought significant discredit to the Department,” the agency said in pressing unsuccessfully for his dismissal.
