Excerpts from the Chicagosuntimes.com:
A Chicago firefighter under investigation for his role in a racially charged melee that led to the fatal shooting of an African-American man by police in 2016 has taken his own life.
Ryne Kinsella, 28, shot himself in the head Wednesday at his home in the 11100 block of South Christiana in Mount Greenwood, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which ruled his death a suicide. Kinsella, who reportedly left a note, who was a Chicago police officer before joining the Chicago Fire Department. He was pronounced dead at the home at 10:16 p.m.
He had been a subject of investigations by the fire department’s Internal Affairs Division and the city’s Office of Inspector General. The internal fire department investigation was dropped when the inspector general stepped in, and that agency’s investigation continues.
Kinsella — who was assigned to a firehouse near Irving Park and Harlem on the Northwest Side — was involved in the incident that led to the fatal shooting by police of Joshua Beal in Mount Greenwood in November 2016.
Beal, 25, of Indianapolis, had been in a funeral procession in the predominantly white neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side. He was shot by Officer Joseph Treacy and Sgt. Thomas Derouin — both off-duty — after pointing a 9mm gun at them during the melee on 111th Street, the police department has said.
Kinsella told detectives he was attacked by African-Americans in the funeral procession after he ordered them to get back inside their vehicles and to stop blocking access to a nearby fire station. Kinsella suffered bruises and scratches to his face and a swollen nose, according to police records.
After the gunfire, Kinsella could be seen on video giving Beal chest compressions.
The death of Beal, who was a pallbearer for his cousin, touched off days of racial animosity in Mount Greenwood, which is home to many police officers, firefighters and other city workers.
