Ex-cop kills self after feds search home

Chicago Sun-Times
August 15, 2009
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO
Staff Reporter sesposito@suntimes.com

A former Oak Park police sergeant fatally shot himself just hours after federal agents searched his home.

Richard Downs, 58, was found dead about 2 p.m. Thursday at Miller Meadows Forest Preserve in Maywood, Cook County Forest Preserve police spokesman Steve Mayberry said Friday.

Downs died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Cook County medical examiner's office said after an autopsy Friday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency said agents served a search warrant Thursday morning at an Oak Park address where Downs reportedly lived.

"Because the warrant is sealed, there is no additional information I can provide," immigration and customs spokesman Tim Counts said.

Downs worked for the Oak Park police, beginning in December 1973, the department said. He became a sergeant in 1989 and retired in 1994.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1717 ... 15.article

Comments:

narco1026 wrote:
ICE..they also do Child Porno cases, humman trafficking...

dark////princess wrote:
johna wrote:
dark////princess wrote:
Sounds like possibly he was on the take,
Big time.
And couldn't take the heat.

Not likely, he retired 15 years ago. Most likely, he imported something illegal from a foreign country and ICE was aware of it You can connect the dots