Chicago Police Officer Struck By Train Grew Up In Oak Lawn

OAK LAWN, IL -- Conrad Gary, one of two Chicago police officers struck and killed by a commuter train Monday evening while pursuing a gunman, is a graduate of Oak Lawn Community High School. Conrad, 31, joined the Chicago Police Department 18 months ago. He was with his partner, Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, who was also killed. Both officers were the fathers of young children.

Dist. 229 Superintendent Dr. Michael Riordan confirmed that Gary was a 2005 graduate of OLCHS. Riordan said that an alumni who graduated with Gary, emailed the school early Tuesday morning. Gary’s parents still reside in Oak Lawn.

“I talked to some of our teachers,” Riordan said. “He was a real good kid, a good student. He was very hardworking and considerate. We’re all deeply saddened.”

>>> Officers Killed By Train Were Pursuing Shooting Suspect: CPD

Gary was a student in the high school’s first web design class when it was launched in 2005, Riordan said. The student-team helped design and build OLCHS’s first website.

In addition to Gary, several of his siblings attended Oak Lawn Community High School. Gary’s wife, Kelly, is a graduate of Reavis High School in Burbank. Riordan was on his way back to OLCHS where students are taking finals, after dropping a note off at Gary’s parents’ house. The Gary family are members of Oak Lawn's St. Gerald Parish, where the children attended the parish grammar school.

“We just want them to know that we are thinking of them,” Riordan said. “If there is going to be benefit or online fundraiser, the family can use both school’s networks of alumni, staff and alumni.”

Gary is also connected to Oak Lawn Village Trustee Tim Desmond's family. Gary's wife, Kelly, is the niece of Desmond's wife, Eileen. Desmond said the couple are the parents of a 6-month-old daughter, Tess. Gary and his wife lived in Oak Lawn up until a few years ago, when they moved a few blocks away to Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood, after he was called up to the Chicago Police Department.

"He was an Air Force veteran," Desmond said. "He came back in 2013 after being stationed in Germany, and spent the rest of his service in Montana, until he was called up to the Chicago Police Department."

Marmolejo and Gary are among the four line-of-duty deaths that have rocked the Chicago Police Department this year. In February, CPD Commander Paul Bauer was shot in the head pursuing a robbery suspect through the Loop. Just last month, another young officer, Samuel Jiminez, 28, was killed along with Mercy Hospital ER doctor Tamara O'Neal and pharmacy resident Dayna Less after a gunman opened fire at the hospital.

Two other officers took their own lives earlier this year, who were with the 5th District this year, where Gary and Marmolejo both served.