P.O. Eric Lee #16947

Officer Eric D. Lee was shot and killed as he and two other tactical officers attempted to aid a citizen.

Officer Lee and his partners were on a special patrol in the Englewood neighborhood when they spotted a man being beaten in an alley. They rushed to assist the victim and announced they were police. One of the fleeing assailants unexpectedly fired, striking Officer Lee in the head.

Several suspects were apprehended and held for questioning. The shooter was charged with the murder of a police officer. On January 23, 2004, Officer Lee's killer was found guilty of first-degree murder. On September 17, 2004, he was sentenced to life in prison. On November 22, 2005, following many continuances, the Cook County Criminal Court judge balanced the scales of justice and denied Officer Lee's killer both motions for a new trial.

Officer Lee was a 9-year veteran officer, a former Marine with a magna cum laude university degree, whose personnel file spoke to his nine years of good judgment on the job. He had volunteered to be a tactical officer, an especially dangerous line of police work. He had passed up his once-every-month options to “bid out” of Englewood for easier duty in a less stressful district. Friends said he liked the people of Englewood, enjoyed the uphill struggle to make their lives safer. Eric Lee became the 4th tactical officer to be shot to death in Chicago in 2 years.

His wife, 6-year-old daughter, parents, two brothers, and a sister survive Eric Lee.
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Officer Lee's funeral was held at Salem Baptist Church in Chicago IL.
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Cop killer gets life in prison, no parole
September 18, 2004|By Patrick Rucker, Tribune staff reporter.

Convicted cop killer Aloysius Oliver avoided the death penalty, but a judge Friday sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole.
"The sad truth is that whatever's done here today will not bring him back," Cook County Circuit Judge John Moran said, referring to slain Chicago police Officer Eric D. Lee, 37. "If it could, the decision would be an easy one."

Oliver, 28, was convicted in January of first-degree murder for shooting Lee twice in the head after the plainclothes officer ran up with two partners to stop Oliver from beating a transient in the alley behind his Englewood home. Lee's partners testified Oliver said, "[expletive] the police" before pulling a handgun from his jacket on Aug. 19, 2001.

The verdict came at the end of a daylong sentencing hearing in which prosecutors argued that Oliver had earned a place on Death Row through a long history of crime and violence, while defense attorneys insisted he could redeem himself in prison.
"Chicago police officers are a special breed. All give some, some give all," Assistant State's Atty. David O'Connor said in his closing remarks. "He deserves death, because Eric Lee deserved life."

In her opening statement, Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek asked the judge not to "compound this tragedy by uselessly taking the life of Aloysius Oliver."

Oliver has spent the last three years in a correspondence course for Yahweh, a religion that combines Christianity and Judaism, Placek said. He has "rehabilitative potential" and could stand as an example to other inmates while he spent the rest of his life in prison, she said.
When Oliver was asked if he had anything to say before sentencing, Oliver said "No." But after a half-hour recess and moments before Moran delivered his verdict, Oliver spoke up. "I'm sorry things had to happen the way they did," he said.

"These things did not `have to happen,'" Moran corrected. "You made the choices, and now you'll have to suffer the consequences."
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The offender is serving his life sentence currently with no possibility of parole.