It is nothing less than unacceptable when a Chicago police officer is gunned down in the line of duty, doing the dangerous job that is expected of him.
The somber realities of the job, including the possibility of being shot to death, lurk in the back of every officer’s mind when he or she clocks in to patrol our streets — where the easy availability of deadly weapons keeps proliferating.
Yet, even when the possibility of danger exists, we’re taken aback as a city when an officer is killed.
Chicago is crestfallen once again after the murder of 32-year-old Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso in an exchange of gunfire with a teenager in Gage Park on Thursday. Our condolences go out to his family, his friends and the entire Chicago Police Department, who lost a young officer only a few years into his career.
Vasquez-Lasso had been responding to a call of a woman being chased by a man with a gun when he was shot by the armed 18-year-old he and his colleagues had been pursuing late Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Vasquez-Lasso was able to return fire in spite of his wounds, striking the suspect, Steven Montano, in the head. That outcome could have been avoided, too, if the officers hadn’t been pummeled with bullets in the first place.
As well, think of the children playing at a nearby school, who had to run for cover to avoid being hit. Exposure to gun violence is no way for kids to live.
The suspect, now charged with first-degree murder and several other offenses, had a brush with the law before. Montano was arrested last summer on a misdemeanor that was eventually dropped. But the circumstances of his arrest also indicate how pervasive crime and gun violence have become: He was near two handguns and ran from a stolen Honda Accord used in a shooting.
Following the death of Ella French, the last Chicago police officer shot and killed in the line of duty, we made the point that that no one is safe when a person disregards and disrespects the authority of those who wear a uniform and badge.
Policing reform is needed. But none of us can lose sight of the fact that there are officers who sincerely want to do their jobs the right way.
Vasquez-Lasso — officer, husband, father — and his fellow fallen officers made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our streets safe from the same violence that cut his life short.
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