The Chicago Tribune has amended it’s report on last night’s barricaded suspect and wounding of a police officer to include statements that Arlington Heights Deputy Fire Chief Ken Keoppen along with police officers, administered aid to the fallen police officer prior to the arrival of paramedics.
An Arlington Heights deputy fire chief is being credited with saving the life of a police officer who was shot in the chin as he and other officers responded to a call of a man threatening his ex-girlfriend with a gun, officials said this morning.
Deputy Fire Chief Ken Koeppen happened to be visiting in the 1900 block of Windham Court and rushed to Officer Michael McEvoy’s aid Thursday night. Koeppen said he was eating dinner with his father-in-law “when I saw flashing lights out the window. I went out to help. I only gave them (police) a hand.”
He told WGN-TV that he worked to stabilize the officer and stem the bleeding. “I put pressure on the wound, keeping the bleeding down and helping stabilize things until paramedics arrived. The police did a great job.” Cmdr. Andrew Whowell said “it was an act of God” that Koeppen was in the neighborhood. “He was definitely an integral part” in saving the officer’s life.
“Ken Koeppen was a hero in all this,” the commander said.
McEvoy, 52 and a 24-year veteran of the department, and three other officers were responding to a call from a woman who said a man, identified later as Eric M. Anderson, had come to her home despite a protection order taken out this past Monday by her 39-year-old daughter, Whowell said.
By the time police arrived, the woman had rushed to a neighbor’s house and Anderson was holding the daughter inside the home, he said.
McEvoy was the first to enter the home and was shot in the chin, Whowell said. Two other officers dragged him to safety and that’s when Koeppen arrived to treat the officer until he could be taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.
Meanwhile, dozens of officers surrounded the residential area as police communicated with Anderson and tried to persuade him to surrender, Whowell said. Officers shot out streetlights in the area for tactical purposes, he said.
Around 10:30 p.m., Anderson forced his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint into an attached garage, Whowell said. When officers confronted Anderson, he pointed the gun at them and the woman ran away, Whowell said. The officers opened fire and hit Anderson several times.
“He pointed a gun at them. You hit a point of no return,” Whowell said. “There’s no question about it.”
Anderson, 41, was taken to Northwest Community Hospital and pronounced dead at 11:02 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
McEvoy is expected to make a full recovery, according to Whowell. “It did not hit anything vital, even though he lost a lot of blood,” he said.
McEvoy is a patrol officer and forensic technician. McEvoy is not married but his family has asked for his privacy, according to Whowell.
Whowell said there had been no previous calls to the Arlington Heights address involving Anderson and Arlington Heights police had not encountered Anderson before. But on Monday, a McHenry County judge granted an emergency order of protection against Anderson after the 39-year-old woman accused him of harassing and following her. The order lists her home address in Crystal Lake.
The woman wrote on her petition for the order that she broke up with Anderson on Nov. 25 but he continued to “bother her” with phone calls and sent money to her at her workplace. He also sent her an apology card, she said, but she told him she didn’t trust him.
At a stoplight, according to the woman, Anderson approached her vehicle and punched her rolled-up window. When she arrived home, he was waiting for her, she wrote. He seemed to know details of her recent whereabouts and told her he could get into her home without her alarm going off, the woman wrote.
The woman called police, who, according to her account, called him to tell him not to bother her. He continued calling and emailing and threatened to appear at her office, she wrote. He disregarded another warning from police, she said.
The woman wrote that he was arrested, and McHenry County court records show he was charged Wednesday with two misdemeanor counts of electronic harassment originating in Crystal Lake. She wrote that he was free on bond shortly after his arrest.
McHenry County prosecutors could not be reached for comment. A court hearing was scheduled for the protection order Dec. 23.
