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Schools have been shut down and trains halted in an area of north of Chicago where a massive manhunt is underway for 3 cop killers.
An unidentified Fox Lake police officer radioed a dispatcher to say he was chasing three “suspicious” men on foot before 8 a.m. The officer requested backup.
Police responded to the scene and found the officer’s lifeless body near route 12 and Sayton Road in Lake County, IL. He had been stripped of his gun and pepper spray.
The men — 2 whites and 1 black — are still on the loose. Police don’t know if they are still on foot or if they were picked up by a motorist. It isn’t clear if the police know the identities of the suspects.
Law enforcement including S.W.A.T. teams and U.S. marshals are combing the woods in Lake County. The airspace above the area is restricted to police helicopters.
Residents are advised to stay indoors until the suspects are flushed out of the woods.
The identity of the deceased officer has not been released. He is the 6th law enforcement officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty in the past month alone.
President Barack Obama called the widow of Harris County (Texas) Deputy Sheriff Darren H. Goforth to offer his condolences on Monday. Ofc. Goforth was ambushed and shot 15 times by a deranged gunman at a gas station while he pumped gas into his police cruiser on Friday.
In a statement released to the media Obama expressed his support for all fallen officers and their families.
“I also promised that I would continue to highlight the uncommon bravery that police officers show in our communities every single day. They put their lives on the line for our safety,” Obama said. “Targeting police officers is completely unacceptable — an affront to civilized society.”
Obama was referring to the militant social media justice group Black Lives Matter who put out a call to kill white people and police officers.
UPDATE: According to Fox News, there is an uninformed report that one of the suspects has been captured.
