Fundraisers Set Up For Fallen Chicago Police Officers

CHICAGO, IL -- Fundraisers have been set up for two Chicago police officers struck and killed by a commuter train while pursuing a shooting suspect Monday evening on the city’s South Side. Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Conrad Gary, 31, were both fathers of young children. They lived in the Beverly and Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods, respectively.

Marmolejo had been with the Chicago Police Department for two years, working in the Calumet 5th District. The young officer lived with his wife and three daughters in the Beverly neighborhood. No stranger to tragedy, Marmolejo worked as an emergency room technician at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The hospital expressed condolences, stating, “our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Marmolejo’s family, friends and fellow officers.”

A Go Fund Me campaign set up in Marmolejo’s honor, was accepting donations for the young officer’s family, who leaves a wife and three young daughters.

“Eddie Marmolejo was a great Police Officer, friend, father, and husband. He worked at Christ Hospital ER selflessly taking care and helping save the lives of others he didn’t even know. [He] joined CPD [two-and-a-half years ago] risking his life to help protect others he didn’t even know … he gave his life protecting the city of Chicago from an individual with a gun.”

The Marmolejo Family Memorial Fund had raised $12,654 toward a goal of $15,000 late Tuesday afternoon. Donate to the Marmolejo Memorial Family Fund

Conrad Gary, 31, grew up in Oak Lawn, attending St. Gerald School and Oak Lawn Community High School. He was an Air Force veteran in Germany and Montana, according to his uncle, Oak Lawn Tr. Tim Desmond. Gary had been a Chicago police officer for 18 months.

Gary and his wife, Kelly, lived in Oak Lawn with their 6-month-old daughter, Tess. The couple moved to Chicago’s Mt. Greenwood neighborhood after Gary was called up by the Chicago Police Department. Family members set up a Go Fund Me campaign to assist the family he leaves behind. By late Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser had raised $22,154. (Donate to the Gary family fund.)

“[Gary] is loved by so many and will truly be missed,” the family said in a written statement on Go Fund Me. “His wife Kelly and daughter Tess will forever be changed by this event.”

The 5th District officers were pursuing a shooting suspect up the embankment of the Metra tracks near 103rd Street and Cottage Grove when they were struck by a South Shore Electric Train. Investigators surmise that the police officers may not have seen or heard the commuter train that fatally struck them because they were focused on another train coming from the opposite direction, a CPD spokesman said Tuesday.

A person of interest believed to have fired the shots is currently being interviewed by police. Charges are pending.

Marmolejo and Gary are among four police officers killed in the line of duty in 2018. The 5th District, where the officers had been assigned, has experienced five deaths this year, including the two suicides of fellow officers and another officer, who died of a heart attack.

Read more Patch coverage on the fallen Chicago police officers:

• Officers Killed By Train Were Pursuing Shooting Suspect: CPD
• Chicago Officers Likely Didn't See Train That Killed Them
• Chicago Police Officer Struck By Train Grew Up In Oak Lawn