Bad decisions led to terrible consequences in train tragedy

Few things are more dangerous than guns and trains.

In one horrifying moment, we witnessed the devastation caused when these elements collided on Monday.

A train near 101st and Dauphin struck Chicago Police Officers Eduardo Marmolejo and Conrad Gary as they responded to a ShotSpotter alert.

Officials speculate that the officers were caught unaware because of the noise from an oncoming train.

This tragedy left two families grief-stricken, the Chicago Police Department in mourning and an entire city shaken.

It has also taken a toll on railroad personnel and passengers who were on the South Shore train that night.

OPINION

Edward Brown, 24, who hadn’t had any run-ins with the law, is now charged with felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm.

A judge set Brown’s bail at $200,000. He will need $20,000 to get out of jail, a daunting sum given that Brown works as a prep cook at a restaurant.

If convicted on the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon charges, a non-probational offense, Brown faces one to three years in prison. He could get probation or up to one to three years in prison for the reckless discharge of a firearm.

Although this wasn’t a case of someone trying to shoot someone, Brown’s actions show he didn’t appreciate the danger he put himself in — and ultimately the two police officers — by treating a firearm like a toy.

Police say Brown found the gun in an alley where a person who was taking out the trash had dropped it. The legal owner of that gun had it in a fanny pack, along with a firearm owner’s identification card, magazines and ammunition.

First of all, it is a sad commentary that this is what it has come to in our city —that someone taking out the trash has to arm themselves with a handgun.

Instead of Brown returning the weapon to its owner or turning it over to the police, he did what too many other people might have done.

In fact, whenever my husband and his brothers get together, they end up talking about what it was like for them growing up in Woodlawn during the 1960s when there was a lot of gang warfare.

My husband always tells the story about how they once found a gun on the street and took turns shooting at a streetlight. They didn’t even think about where those bullets landed. It was only by the grace of God that a stray bullet didn’t kill someone.

Like the people who still go out on New Year’s Eve and pop off a few rounds to celebrate, Brown didn’t consider the fact that police can’t distinguish between shots fired out of foolishness and those fired to cause bodily harm.

Police Officers Marmolejo and Gary went up on those train tracks looking for a shooter because that’s what the public has demanded.

We want tougher penalties for the unlawful use of a weapon. We want police to get illegal guns off the street. But most of all, we want police officers to respond quickly to shots fired.

In setting bail, the judge called Brown’s actions “inherently dangerous” because each bullet (prosecutors claim he fired two) had to come down somewhere.

That Brown went up on the train tracks to fire the gun was another bad decision.

While train tracks have been romanticized in countless movies, most famously in the coming-of-age tale “Stand by Me,” nothing could have been more dangerous.

After firing the gun, prosecutors allege Brown ran south and east across the tracks in front of a Metra train that had pulled into a station.

And because of the ShotSpotter alert, Officers Marmolejo and Gary must have felt compelled to pursue Brown.

Brown’s lawyer said the young man had gone to the tracks “to be away from people in an area he felt would be safer to fire the gun.”

That’s what a gun range is for. There is no safe place on the street to fire a weapon.

Because of the bad decisions Brown made that night, he will have to live with the terrible consequences.

The funeral for Officer Gary was held Friday. Officer Marmolejo’s funeral was planned for Saturday.

At this time of the year, when we celebrate the love of Christ, remember these families in prayer.

What happened on those train tracks is heartbreaking for everyone involved.