'Now He Lives Through Me ... I Live For Him,' Slain Cop's Brother Says

CHICAGO — On a gray, rainy fall day, family, friends and Chicago police officers gathered Monday morning at St. Rita for a somber goodbye to fallen Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez, 26, who was shot to death two weeks ago while conducting a traffic stop in Chatham.

Community members lined 103rd Street to honor Officer Martinez as the hearse made its way from Blake-Lamb Funeral Home carrying the young officer’s casket draped with a City of Chicago flag to St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel where the funeral mass was to be held.

Officer Martinez worked in CPD’s 6th Gresham District, a police district known for its many challenges.

“The 6th District where he worked, it was a very dangerous place to work, very busy, where officers all too often face the dangers of gun violence, but they show up to work every single day to do it over and over again,” CPD Supt. Larry Snelling told mourners. “Even with the loss of Officer Martinez they continue to do it over and over again in his memory and for the safety of the people in our city.”

Snelling remarked that Officer Martinez – a member of the Chicago Police Academy class 27-B – was just a month shy of celebrating his third year anniversary with the Chicago Police Department.

“We all know that when you work in a district like 6, two to three years is like 20 years of experience anywhere else,” the police superintendent said.

Rather than focusing on how the young officer died, Snelling asked the packed church to focus on what could have happened had Officer Martinez not made that fateful traffic stop.

“In the moments when he recognized there was danger he went to it and gave his life,” Snelling said. “But when you look at the circumstances of what occurred, the question is, how many lives did he save that night by making that stop at that particular moment? How many innocent people did he protect that could have become victims had Officer Martinez not stopped the vehicle that night?”

“The willingness to give your life for the safety of others is the most noble thing you can do …” the police superintendent told the assembled police officers sitting in the pews. “Do great things for our fine officer.”

Officer Martinez grew up in the West Lawn area where he attended St. Nicholas of Tolentine Catholic Grammar School. He met the love of his life, Lesly Hernandez, when he was 16 years old at Hubbard High School. The high school sweethearts were engaged to be married at the time of his death.

Colleagues recalled Officer Martinez’s sunny personality and charisma that elevated the 6th District, who kept his colleagues laughing and loose in the midst of their often mind numbing and traumatic work.

Officer Martinez’s grieving brother, Adrian Martinez, also a Chicago police officer, recalled how he was 5 years old when he convinced his parents, Rosa Mayen, and Adrian Martinez, Sr., to name his baby brother after his favorite pop singer, Enrique Iglesias.

“As boys, my mother pushed us to become doctors and lawyers, like any Latino mom,” Adrian Martinez said. “But my brother and I had other dreams, we wanted to become Chicago police officers.”

Adrian said his mother tried to shield her boys from the profession.

“But as hard as she tried, we realized it wasn’t just a job, it was our calling,” Adrian Martinez said. “To serve the disadvantaged and protect the forgotten.”

In his early 20s, Enrique entered the police academy, following in the footsteps of his older brother.

“He was charismatic and had a gentle smile …” his brother continued. “If he could rescue every dog on his beat, he would.”

On his final tour, Adrian said his brother “looked evil and terror in the face and took his final breath.”

“You may not know it, but that night my brother saved countless lives as he was pierced by multiple bullets,” Adrian Martinez said. “Every bullet that struck my brother could have taken someone’s mother, father, sister, brother or friend.”

“Enrique will always be my little brother, but I will always look up to him,” he added. “I am proud to be his big brother. His blood runs through my veins, and now he lives through me and I live for him.

On Sunday afternoon, Chicago police officers and community members stood in a block-long line for more than an hour outside Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn to pay their respects to the fallen officer.

Martinez is the second Chicago police officer to be gunned down this year. Police say he was gunned down by 23-year-old Darion McMillian, who authorities say used a switch to turn his semi-automatic handgun into a machine gun. McMillian was on electronic monitoring at the time of the killing.

The driver inside the vehicle was also fatally shot from gunfire that came from inside the vehicle, police said. A gun was reportedly found in the deceased driver's waistband.

At the time of the shooting, McMillian was on pretrial release for two pending Will County cases. Attempts to revoke McMillion’s pretrial release last month after he picked up a second case mere weeks before the officer’s fatal shooting were continued until Nov. 21.

In April, Officer Luis Huesca was still in uniform when he was shot to death by a carjacker in his driveway coming home after finishing his shift.

The Martinez family through intermediaries requested that Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritizker not to attend the young officer’s funeral mass Monday at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel.

Pritzker immediately honored the family’s wishes. Johnson, however, initially planned to attend the officer’s funeral, whether invited or not. On Saturday, Johnson announced he would respect the Martinez family’s wishes by staying away.

Officer Huesca’s family made a similar request in April that the governor and mayor stay away from his wake and funeral.

In a videotaped statement posted to YouTube earlier in the week, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told Johnson to be a “class act” and not a “piece of garbage.”

Outside Blake-Lamb during the visitation, retired CPD Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy compared the city’s gun violence to cancer.

“It’s like Chicago is suffering from a form of cancer,” Roy told reporters gathered across the street from the funeral home. “It started off mildly enough, but now it's a fully blossomed disease, and it's taking our citizens, school kids and even police officers.”

Martinez is the fourth Chicago police officer to be slain while on duty during the past three years. Last year, in May 2023, Officer Areanah Preston was shot to death by alleged carjackers when she came home after finishing her shift. A few months earlier, in March 2023, Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso was fatally shot answering a domestic call.

CPD maintains that hundreds more police officers have been shot at.