Sun-Times file photo
An off-duty Chicago police officer is believed to have killed himself Thursday inside a West Loop home.
The 29-year-old man was found about 2:35 p.m. inside a home in the 1600 block of West Warren Boulevard with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Chicago police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not ruled on the cause and manner of the officer’s death.
He is at least the second CPD officer to have died by suicide this year.
Last month, Celal Cenker Surgit, 54, who spent nearly 20 years with the department, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his West Ridge home, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
The police department in recent years has struggled to maintain adequate mental health resources for officers, according to a city inspector general report released at the end of 2022, weeks before the department saw three suicides within a week.
In 2017, a U.S. Justice Department report found the suicide rate among Chicago cops was 60% higher than the national average for law enforcement officials.
The department has 18 counselors providing mental health services to its roughly 11,600 members, apparently falling short of its goal of assigning one counselor to each of its 22 police districts.