Officers hit by train caught unaware when sound of one train 'drowned out' other

Officers hit by train caught unaware when sound of one train ‘drowned out’ other

By Frank Main

Workers on the tracks where two Chicago police officers were struck and killed by a commuter train Monday. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

Two Chicago Police officers were apparently caught unaware when they were fatally hit by a train Monday night because another passing train “drowned out” the sound of it, authorities said Tuesday.

Police based that account on a body camera that one of the officers was wearing. The video and audio from the recovered camera show the officers, Eduardo Marmolejo and Conrad Gary, were about 10 yards away from each other walking south on the tracks near 101st Street and Dauphin.

They were on the west side of the railway. On the east side, they could see a train approaching at a high rate of speed. The lights were approaching the officers when a train traveling south struck them from the rear.

“They were not running or yelling,” said Tom Ahern, a police spokesman. “They were not in hot pursuit. We feel the sound of the northbound train drowned out the southbound train.”

A man suspected of firing the gun near the tracks was arrested while he was coming down stairs near the tracks at 103rd and Cottage Grove, Ahern said. At least four shell casings and a semiautomatic pistol were recovered, he said.

Chicago Police Officer Eduardo Marmolejo, left, and Conrad Gary, were killed Monday night when they were chasing a suspect with a gun and they were hit by a train. | Chicago Police photos

Ahern said the Cook County state’s attorney’s office was evaluating possible charges against the man.

Earlier, the partners had responded to an alert from a ShotSpotter gunshot detector that a single round was fired near the railroad tracks at 101st and Dauphin.

A few minutes later on the police radio, one of the officers told a dispatcher he saw someone running on the east side of the railroad tracks south from 101st and Dauphin.

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ShotSpotter alerted the officers to a second gunshot at the same location on the tracks.

They were warned to “use caution.”

Then another officer called the dispatcher to say a person was in custody and a weapon was recovered.

The dispatcher tried to reach Marmolejo and Gary, saying, “Do you all copy, one in custody?”

The timing of when the officers were killed and when the arrest was made is unclear.

Ahern said Police Supt. Eddie Johnson and First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio helped remove the remains of the officers from the tracks.

“They took into account that the Fifth District has had so many tragedies with officer suicides and so forth,” Ahern said. “Out of respect for the district, they personally took part in handling their remains.”

In 2002, when Officer Benjamin Perez was killed by a train on the West Side while conducting drug surveillance, commanders under then-Supt. Terry Hillard personally helped remove his remains from the tracks, too.