Cook County sheriff’s sergeant dies in Elgin crash after medical emergency

An off-duty sergeant with the Cook County sheriff’s office was killed Sunday in a single-vehicle crash in west suburban Elgin after suffering an apparent medical emergency.

Gary Newsom, 49, drove south in the northbound lanes of the 1100 block of Dundee Avenue and struck a utility police, Elgin police and the Kane County coroner’s office said.

Authorities responded about 4:30 p.m. and took him to Sherman Hospital, where he died, police said. A passenger in the same car was uninjured.

The sheriff’s office said Newsom had a “serious medical condition” and suffered a “fatal medical emergency.”

An autopsy found “a significant amount of blockages in the arteries of Sgt. Newsom’s heart, which can cause sudden death,” the coroner’s office said. His preliminary cause of death is coronary atherosclerosis.

“We are shaken by this loss and our hearts go out to his family,” the sheriff’s office said.