Newly released documents reveal that at least one Fox Lake police officer questioned whether Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz might have taken his own life within minutes of his body being discovered last September.
Gliniewicz had radioed in that he was pursuing three suspects. Arriving officers said when they first found the lieutenant’s body, they noticed his holster was empty and his pepper spray was missing. Eventually, the officer’s weapon was found in tall grass a few feet from his body, and it’s believed he had purposely left his pepper spray canister nearby in an effort to throw off arriving police.
The reports, obtained by NBC5 Investigates on Monday, summarize interviews conducted with first responders by the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.
They reveal that three of the arriving officers all reported hearing at least one gunshot. And that one sergeant, who was a former Gliniewicz student, recalled a colleague raising the possibility of suicide.
