Detectives Kevin Lynn and Patrick Munyon met Tavon Tanner in 2016 in a Mount Sinai hospital room, unsure if the then-10-year-old boy would survive after he was shot on the West Side.
Eight years later, Tanner smiled and laughed with Lynn and Munyon on Thursday after the detectives were honored by the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation at the Chicago Patrolmen’s Federal Credit Union, 1407 W. Washington Blvd.
“I feel special knowing that people care for me,” the18-year-old said of the detectives being recognized for the bond they’ve built with him.
Four other officers were recognized Thursday for a traffic stop that led to the recovery of six loaded handguns with extended magazines and two loaded automatic rifles.
Tanner was shot Aug. 8, 2016, in the 3900 block of West Polk Street and hospitalized in serious condition. The shooting left him in a coma, he said. The case was suspended and no one was in custody, according to the Chicago Police Department.
“The first time we met him, he was really down-and-out. Really quiet. You could tell he was hurting physically and emotionally,” Munyon said.
Tanner “has done a full 180,” the detective said.
“He was a closed young man, very timid, didn’t want to speak to a lot of people,” said Munyon, a detective for over nine years. “Once you get him going, he’s always smiling, which is a big difference.”
“He’s got the greatest smile,” Lynn said. “He’s an entertaining kid. He’s fun to be around.”
The bond between Lynn, Munyon and Tanner came naturally as the investigation progressed and grew as they worked more with Tanner’s mother.
“She took to everything with us and she put her trust in us that we were gonna do our best and we cared about her and her family,” Munyon said. “From there on out, it was super easy for Detective Lynn and myself to do the investigation, as well as begin a great friendship with the family.”
The detectives aided Tanner wherever they could after he was shot. They took turns driving him to St. Patrick High School, helped start a fundraising campaign to cover tuition costs at the high school, gifted him things like baseball gloves and clothes, and helped him cope after a friend was murdered.
“They always took care of my family,” said Tanner, who sees the detectives as family. "[They’ve helped with] really everything.”
On a professional and personal level, Munyon said their bond with Tanner helps serve as a reminder that “there are people who do like the police.”
“It’s nice to get that reinforcement personally,” the detective said. “There are] so many terrible things happening. It reinforces that there’s really good people out there.”
“For me, it just makes me feel good that God put me in a position where I could help others and be able to do what I intended to do when I got on this job some time ago,” Munyon added.
Tanner recently graduated from St. Patrick and hopes to go to trade school.
“He’s got a lot of good friends and he just really blossomed into a fantastic young man,” Munyon said.
