CPD Officer Bernard Domagala Laid To Rest With Bagpipes and Respect

CHICAGO, IL -- On a bright, late summer morning, two families came to say goodbye to a Chicago police officer who died 29 years after he was shot in the line of duty: his cop family standing in the street in their dress blues, and his wife and sons, who stood by him through his struggles with traumatic brain injury.

CPD Officer Bernard "Bernie" Domagala was given a hero’s funeral Monday morning at Queen of Martyrs Church on the Evergreen Park. Domagala passed away last week at age 66, succumbing to a gunshot wound to the head inflicted by another ex-cop who had barricaded himself his South Side home in July 1988. Domagala was 37 at the time of his injury.

A procession of bagpipers and drummers played ahead of the hearse carrying the fallen officer down 102nd Street to Queen of Martyrs. Domagala was rememberedby other officers for his eclectic skills, which included hunting, fishing, cabinet making and baking cakes, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

CPD First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro said that despite almost 30 years of traumatic brain injury complications, surgeries and therapies Domagala continued to joke and tell stories about the police force and his family “even though the deck was stacked against them.”

“Many people in that position would let the extent of their injuries get the better of them, but not Bernie,” Navarro said. “That’s what a true hero does.”

Funeral procession arrives at Queen of Martyrs Church in Evergreen Park