Police Officer Stress

waltky · Jan 15, 2018

FBI expert concluded Chicago cop's shooting staged to appear as a suicide...

FBI expert concluded Chicago cop's shooting staged to appear as a suicide
Jan. 12,`18 -- Veteran Chicago police Sgt. Donald Markham was shot by someone else at point-blank range in his home in 2015 before the scene was staged to appear to be a suicide, a forensic pathologist hired by the FBI concluded in a report obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

The five-page report contradicts Cook County officials' ruling that Markham had shot himself in September 2015 after a drunken argument with his wife, Dina, also a veteran Chicago cop. The report was part of a yearlong probe by the FBI, which began after questions were raised within the Chicago Police Department about Markham's death. The mystery deepened last May when Dina Markham, 47, was herself found dead, submerged in a bathtub in the couple's home in the 5900 block of North Newark Avenue. Her death, ruled an accidental drowning by the Cook County medical examiner's office, occurred before the FBI was able to interview her. As part of its probe, the FBI hired forensic pathologist Scott Denton to review the autopsy reports and photos from the scene of Markham's death. Denton, a former chief interim medical examiner for Cook County, works in a private capacity in downstate Bloomington.

Denton's report -- submitted to the FBI last February -- found a number of troubling aspects about the scene that led him to conclude the shooting was, in fact, a homicide, or "death at the hands of another." Among the clues, he said, were blood patterns indicating Markham's arms were "lifted upward after death," the strange placement of the gun "loosely in his right hand" and a lack of small abrasions or lacerations on his index finger that typically can be seen after someone fires a gun. "The position of his body, the blood flow pattern on his face, the blood transfer pattern on his chin and left hand under his chin, and the moved and placed appearance of the gun in his right hand are all consistent with his body having been moved after death," Denton wrote in the report, obtained by the Tribune from the medical examiner's office through an open records request. The medical examiner's office, meanwhile, has doubled down on its original ruling that Donald Markham, 51, shot himself in his own bed that night, writing in a point-by-point refutation that the FBI expert offered "creative and descriptive scenarios" that were not grounded in science.

In her nine-page rebuttal report, also made public Thursday, Chief Medical Examiner Ponni Arunkumar wrote that Denton's analyses of the blood spatter and position of Markham's body ignored scientific literature that a body often continues to move -- or even convulse -- after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. The position of the gun in Markham's hand was consistent with a well-known textbook on gunshot wounds showing that suicide victims often grip guns in a different way than they would if they were shooting at a target, Arunkumar wrote. And while Donald Markham apparently left no suicide note, Arunkumar said that "neighbors, friends, colleagues and family members" of the Markhams all gave interviews indicating that the couple argued frequently and that "during these arguments they would express statements about killing themselves."

Last month, the FBI held an unusual meeting with officials at the medical examiner's office, detailing the bureau's findings that called into question the suicide ruling. A medical examiner's office spokeswoman said the initial Markham death investigation was then put through a review by 10 other pathologists with its office, who all agreed with the original finding of suicide. The Tribune reported Sunday that the FBI concluded its probe into Markham's death after that meeting and that no federal charges would be sought. But the case is far from over. Officers and detectives who were present at the scene of Donald Markham's death have been interviewed by prosecutors with the Cook County state's attorney's office as part of a parallel investigation, the Tribune has reported. Also pending is a separate probe by Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who launched his own investigation early last year focusing on whether any city administrative rules or codes of conduct were violated.

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Andrew Jackson · Jan 15, 2018

waltky said: ↑

FBI expert concluded Chicago cop's shooting staged to appear as a suicide...

FBI expert concluded Chicago cop's shooting staged to appear as a suicide
Jan. 12,`18 -- Veteran Chicago police Sgt. Donald Markham was shot by someone else at point-blank range in his home in 2015 before the scene was staged to appear to be a suicide, a forensic pathologist hired by the FBI concluded in a report obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
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Most likely shot by another cop (who got away with murder). :smfh:

Cops always skate on murder charges.

reallybigjohnson · Jan 18, 2018

Considering its Chicago it's almost guaranteed that he was killed for being crooked or because someone thought he was going to blow the whistle on them. The entire government of Illinois and the city of Chicago need to be fired and the expenses charged to the taxpayers of Illinois for being such a monumental bunch of dumbasses.

perdidochas · Jan 19, 2018

Brett Nortje said: ↑

They should spend time with lower school children and exercise more. if they were to have to go and patrol the kids, maybe they could teach them a good lesson on life, and be cheered up by little smiles?
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Time with lower school children causes more disease. Young children are major disease vectors.

waltky · Sep 13, 2018

Third Chicago Police Officer Takes Own Life in Two Months...

Third Chicago Police Officer Takes Own Life in Two Months
September 13, 2018 - A Chicago police officer apparently fatally shot herself in the parking lot of a Far South Side police station Wednesday morning

The officer, 54, was found unresponsive in the Calumet District parking lot at 727 E. 111th St. about 8 a.m., police said in a statement. She was inside her personal car and appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said clinicians and counselors have been made available to fellow officers at the Calumet District. “Crushing news for the department this morning as we grapple with the suicide of a veteran Chicago police officer who took her life inside her personal vehicle,’’ tweeted chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “Please pray for this officer’s family and fellow officers."

A Chicago police officer apparently fatally shot herself in the parking lot of a Far South Side police station Wednesday morning.

The Fraternal Order of Police tweeted, “Prayers, please. We have been informed that a Chicago Police Officer took her life this morning." The officer is the third Chicago cop to have taken their life in the last few months. In July, Officer Brandon Krueger shot and killed himself inside his squad car while on duty. Like the female officer, Krueger killed himself outside the Calumet District station. On Labor Day, Sgt. Steven Bechina was found unresponsive in his squad car in the West Loop. An autopsy determined he fatally shot himself and his death was ruled a suicide.

A proposed federal consent decree calls for the Police Department to provide more resources for officers seeking counseling. For example, the department has three licensed mental health professionals, but the decree would compel the department to raise that number to 10 by 2020. The decree was drafted after a scathing report on the department by the U.S. Justice Department. Among the findings were that the suicide rate among Chicago police officers was 60 percent higher than the national average.

https://www.officer.com/command-hq/...o-police-officer-takes-own-life-in-two-months
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