Oak Park, Illinois: Police officer killed in shooting

CHICAGO – An Oak Park police detective was killed Friday morning by a gunman seen leaving a bank. This was the first on-duty killing of an officer in the Middle Western suburb in 86 years, officials said.

Detective Allan Reddins, a five-year veteran of the department, was shot in the left side shortly after 9 a.m. while responding to a call of a person armed with a gun who was seen leaving a Chase Bank branch, according to the Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson.

Johnson said Reddins, along with several other responding officers, ordered the suspect to show his hands, but he instead “brandished a firearm” and opened fire.

Reddins, 40, was transported to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition and died of his injuries around 10:10 a.m., Johnson said.

“We are in a bad place right now,” Johnson said at a press conference on Friday evening. “It hurts me. His family is suffering.”

The suspect was shot in the leg during the altercation and was treated at the scene before being transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was in custody Friday evening, police said.

Johnson said the investigation is ongoing and she did not answer questions about what led to the shooting. When asked for more details about the suspected shooter, Johnson said she didn’t want to give him any more “airtime” in the news.

Reddins, of Chicago, joined the Oak Park Police Department in 2019 after a stint with Metra Police and quickly established himself as a “natural leader,” Johnson said. He was promoted to investigator in 2022 and has closed several large cases during his time as a detective, she said.

“He always went the extra step to say, ‘What else,’ and that’s great,” the boss said. “I thought he would also be a phenomenal field training officer and was looking forward to becoming a sergeant.”

Reddins was a “devoted family man” and is survived by his mother, siblings and a 19-year-old son, Johnson said.

“We’ve had so many conversations about his mother,” said Johnson, who described Reddins’ son as “a bright young man with a bright future ahead of him.”

Reddins’ death marks the Oak Park Police Department’s first on-duty death since 1938. She said the 86-member force is “in mourning.”

“We have a very tight-knit police department,” Johnson said, adding that many officers celebrating the holidays at home came in to offer assistance and a sergeant was able to pick up Reddins’ mother and drive her to the hospital.

“He had a whole community there at the hospital,” Johnson said. “We put our arms around each other. … This is the worst day for any police chief.”

Johnson also said she has heard from heads of other departments in the area offering help and condolences, including Chicago Police Commissioner Larry Snelling.

Funeral information will be posted on the Village of Oak Park website, Johnson said.