Slain Oak Park detective Allan Reddins was remembered as a “natural born leader” and a “devoted” family man who was killed in the line of duty Friday morning near the public library in downtown Oak Park.
“The work he did was so impactful,” Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said during a late afternoon media briefing.
“I personally knew him … He had a talent that was needed here.”
Chief Johnson said Reddins, a former Metra police officer, was “a natural” who “closed substantial cases.”
Just after 9:35 a.m. Friday, the Oak Park Fire Department responded to a shooting in the 800 block of Lake Street and found Reddins shot in the left side, Oak Park police said.
Reddins, a 40-year-old Chicago resident and five-year veteran of the Oak Park Police Department, was taken to the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood in critical condition but was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said. It’s the department’s first line-of-duty death since 1938.
A short time before the shooting, a gunman was seen leaving the Chase Bank branch in the 1000 block of Lake Street with a gun, which prompted the initial response, Johnson said.
The person authorities believe fired at the officer was shot in the leg by another officer, officials said. He was treated at the scene before also being taken to Loyola where his condition was stabilized.
Johnson said Reddins was made detective two years ago after joining the force in 2019, and she had looked forward to seeing him become a sergeant. He had been on patrol Friday morning due to staffing shortages.
Outside policing, she described him as a “devoted father” who leaves behind a 19-year-old son, his mother and a “host” of friends and colleagues.
“He was just a natural leader, he’d always take the extra step,” Johnson said. “He was a committed officer who became a detective.”
Shortly before 3 p.m., dozens of first responders paid their respects to the slain detective as they gathered outside the hospital in Maywood.
Earlier, several police officers, including those from Chicago, River Grove, Elmwood Park and the Cook County sheriff’s office, stood along with Oak Park officers near the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St., which had been closed at the time of the shooting and was cordoned off with yellow and red crime scene tape.
Johnson said retired, off-duty and former Oak Park officers responded along with a slew of other agencies; officers from other agencies were assisting the Oak Park department.
“We have officers from other agencies who are keeping our community safe while our officers process this,” Johnson said. “We have peer support. … We wrap our arms around each other.”
“This is the worst day … I am hurting.”
Agnes Albert, who works in the building next to the library, said she had been in the bathroom when the shooting happened, but her client heard the exchange of gunfire.
“He asked me to check what was going on because he heard fireworks,” Albert said, adding she heard a man yelling about pain in his leg being swarmed by police moments later.
“Maybe people should stay at home and watch TV instead of running with guns,” Albert said.
A man who lives in a nearby building and didn’t want to be identified, said he was awoken by about six gunshots before a brief pause and another volley of rounds.
“I didn’t poke my head out the window for a while,” he said. He and his wife, who have lived there almost eight years, are going to spend the weekend at her parent’s house to “get away,” he said.
It was the second shooting in a year on their block — the first he attributed to “kids being stupid” — and he worries crime is on the rise.
“That one I think was just kids being stupid,” he said. “Twice in one year is kind of ridiculous. … We just want to get away from the situation and let things calm down.”