An off-duty Chicago police officer died by suicide Wednesday, the Cook County medical examiner’s office determined.
Autopsy results released Thursday said the 54-year-old officer died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the medical examiner’s office. He was identified as Celal Surgit.
Officers responding to a well-being check found the officer unresponsive inside his home about 2:45 p.m. in the 7400 block of North California Avenue, Chicago police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A procession escorted the officer’s body to the medical examiner’s office on the Near West Side on Wednesday night, with an ambulance leading half a dozen CPD squad cars with their emergency blue lights flashing.
The police department has been criticized for its ability to address mental health in recent years amid a concerning rise in suicides. More than a dozen officers have died by suicide since 2018. Seven officers died by suicide in 2022 — three of them within a single month that summer and another three within a week that December.
In a report last year, the city inspector general concluded the department “does not adequately prepare its supervisors to identify members in need of wellness services, and CPD does not ensure that supervisors remain up to date on their supervisory responsibilities relating to officer wellness.”
A U.S. Justice Department report in 2017 found the suicide rate of Chicago police officers was 60% higher than the national average for members of law enforcement.
Exact data on suicides by police officers can be difficult to determine due to a lack of reporting.
In response to the inspector general’s report, the police department said last year that it had increased the number of professional counselors from three to 17 in the last seven years.
The department also said last year that it was planning to hire more counselors to reach a goal of at least 22 counselors. The department employs about 11,600 sworn officers.
