CHICAGO (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — A fourth suspect was arrested Thursday night in the shooting death of an off-duty Chicago police officer, gunned down during a robbery attempt outside his father’s South Side home late Wednesday.
Officer Thomas Wortham IV, 30, was shot around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. He was leaving his parents’ home in the 8400 block of South King Drive and sitting on his new motorcycle.
A police source said Wortham’s father — a retired Chicago police sergeant, former member Mayor Harold Washington’s security detail and, like his son, a military veteran — was on the porch when he saw two men approach and try to rob his son.
Wortham loudly announced he was a police officer, the source said, then one of the men shot him in the head. The officer’s father came to Wortham’s aid and shot two of the four attackers, killing one, police said.
Brian Floyd, 20, of the 3700 block of S. Wentworth Ave., was shot dead on the scene at the King Drive address, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. An autopsy Thursday determined Floyd died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.
Another suspect who was shot multiple times remains hospitalized as of 3:45 a.m. Friday in critical condition and under police guard at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. That suspect, a 20-year-old man, was arrested on the scene at the King Drive address, police said.
Floyd and the hospitalized suspect were left on the scene while the two others initially got away in a Pontiac Grand Prix with which they allegedly used to hit the wounded officer, police said.
A 20-year-old West Side man with a minor criminal record for a gun charge, turned himself in with his attorney Thursday afternoon at the Harrison District police station where he was arrested about 3 p.m., officials said.
The fourth suspect, 29, was arrested about 9 p.m. after police conducted a traffic stop near the intersection of Jackson and Western avenues and he was found inside the curbed vehicle, ducking or hiding inside of it, police said.
None of the three surviving suspects have been charged as of 3:50 a.m., according to police.
The Grand Prix was found about an hour after the shooting parked near the intersection of 39th Street and Princeton Avenue, police said.
Court records show the suspect who turned himself in Thursday afternoon pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after being arrested with a .45-caliber handgun last year and was sentenced to 18 months probation.
Calumet Area detectives confirmed early Friday that no one else was being sought in the murder investigation.
Wortham was pronounced dead just after midnight at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He was gunned down in front of the house his grandfather built and which he grew up in. An autopsy Thursday determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis issued a statement Thursday calling the death “a tragic loss” for the entire city. Weis also confirmed one offender remained hospitalized and another turned himself in.
“The entire Chicago Police Department would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Wortham family,” Weis said. “Officer Wortham was a true guardian to those he served and an inspiration to his friends and colleagues.”
Wortham joined the Chicago Police Dept. in June 2007 and served in the Englewood District, according to Weis’ statement.
Officer Wortham also served as a First Lieutenant in the Army National Guard, most recently completing a tour in Iraq on March 30, 2010.
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