Politics & Government
Judge Allows Firearms Expert To Testify In Trials Of Men Charged With Murder Of CPD Officer Areanah Preston
That includes ballistics evidence, the kind of testimony where an expert claims a bullet or casing can be matched to a specific gun.
January 16, 2026
A Cook County judge ruled Thursday that key witness testimony from a firearms expert will be allowed in the trials of three men accused in the murder of Chicago police officer Areanah Preston.
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Preston, 24, was shot and killed outside her Avalon Park home in May of 2023, just after finishing her shift. She was just starting her police career and only days away from earning her master's degree.
About 40 people, all of them Preston's family, friends, and fellow officers, packed the courtroom as three of the four suspects asked a judge to block a firearms expert from presenting testimony on firearms and ballistics evidence in the case.
