5 Mourners Overcome By Heat At Fallen CPD Officer's Funeral

CHICAGO — Several police officers and a teen were taken to area hospitals after they were overcome by the heat Thursday morning standing outside St. Rita of Cascia Shrine, where the funeral was taking place for CPD Officer Ella French.

Hundreds of rank and file police officers and neighborhood residents stood outside in direct sunlight in a show of support for French’s family and the Chicago Police Department. Temperatures were in the high 80s with high humidity.

Among those transported from the funeral, were two state troopers, CPD officers and a 16-year-old girl, CFD spokesman Larry Langford said. All are expected to be okay.

“This is probably the largest police funeral I’ve seen in many years, and many officers were outside in direct sunlight in full dress uniform,” Langford told the Chicago Sun-Times.

A rain shower passed through the South Side during the funeral for French, who was killed in the line of duty Aug. 7 while conducting a traffic stop. Her partner, Carlos Yanez Jr., was critically wounded and remains hospitalized. A third officer, Joshua Blas, survived uninjured and shot one of the suspects during an exchange of gunfire, police said.

Cooling buses were brought in for the mourners standing outside. The Chicago Fire Department thanked Home Depot in a tweet for its donation of pallets of bottled water. Chicago firefighters could be seen passing out bottled water to the crowd of mourners standing outside the shrine.