Hundreds Gather To Pay Respects To CPD Officer Conrad Gary

OAK LAWN, IL -- Hundreds of mourners stood in line in a light rain outside Oak Lawn’s Blake-Lamb Funeral Home waiting to pay their respects to a 31-year-old Chicago police officer. Conrad Gary and fellow officer Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, were fatally struck by a commuter train as they followed a man suspected of firing a gun on the Metra tracks.

Gary is the first of the two officers who will be laid to rest. The officer and new dad had been with the Chicago Police Department for just 18 months when he was killed in the line of duty on Monday. Gary had strong ties to Oak Lawn, attending St. Gerald School and Oak Lawn Community High School. He and wife, Kelly, moved to Mount Greenwood when he was called up. In addition to his wife, he leaves a 6-month-old daughter Tess.

Ald. Matt O’Shea said he would be attending the visitations and funerals of both officers, who were residents of the 19th Ward, which has the largest number of the city’s police officers and firefighters living there.

Ald. O'Shea speaks to reporters outside Blake-Lamb Funeral Home

“It’s another reminder of how difficult the jobs of our men and women of the Chicago Police Department have each and every day,” O’Shea said. “What we can do now is band together as a community and as a city to be there in support of these two families with young children that will never know their fathers … we will always be there for their children and wives and support them.”

Mourners who passed through Blake-Lamb, as well as CPD officers, wore buttons bearing Gary’s picture. Embattled 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke was spotted entering the funeral home when doors opened in the afternoon.

Officer Gary's funeral Mass will be held at 9:30 a.m. Friday, at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave. (77th Street and Western Avenue), Chicago. Immediately following the service, the funeral procession will travel southbound on Western Avenue to 111th Street, and then westbound on 111th Street to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery at 6001 W. 111th Street. Gary’s family has requested privacy inside the cemetery.

The 19th Ward will be distributing signs honoring Officer Conrad Gary and Officer Eduardo Marmolejo, both of whom were residents of the community. A copy of the sign can be downloaded and printed by clicking here. Signs will also be available at the 19th Ward Office, 10400 S. Western Ave., at 9 a.m. Friday.

Chicago police will do it all over again when they gather Friday afternoon for the beginning of Officer Marmolejo’s visitation.

~ Photo by Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson