Crime & Safety
3 Men Charged In Shooting Of Off-Duty Chicago Cop In Beverly Bar: CPD
Police said officer Dan Golden was shot while trying to break up a verbal altercation. Family said the officer is now paralyzed.
CHICAGO — Three men have been charged in the shooting of an off-duty Chicago police officer over the weekend that left the 32-year-old cop paralyzed, Chicago Police announced on Tuesday.
Demitrius Harrell, 28, Chicago Ridge, Bryant Hayes, 22, Chicago, and Justen Krismantis, 22, Chebanse, were all denied bond after appearing in court on Tuesday. All three of the men were arrested separately and were identified as being involved in the shooting, which took place at 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the 2400 block of 104th Street.
The family of Dan Golden told WGN that the off-duty officer, who turned 32 on Monday, was at Sean’s Rhino Bar after playing in a charity softball tournament that raises money for families dealing with cancer.
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A GoFundMe effort to raise money for Golden's recovery has raised more than than $450,000 as of Tuesday. The effort, started by Golden's aunt, said that Golden is the son of a CPD detective and an ER nurse.
Police said Golden got into a verbal altercation with another person, but his fiancé told WGN that he was trying to de-escalate the argument when someone started shooting. His mother told the station that he identified himself as a police officer before breaking up the fight.
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The GoFundMe page indicates that Golden works in the Area Four Gang Investigation homicide unit and that he was shot in the back and that his spinal cord was severed. The family said he is paralyzed from the waist down. The bullet is lodged in his lung and doctors are not planning on performing surgery at this time.
"This devastating, life-altering event has forever changed the course of his life," Golden's aunt, Eileen Gorman wrote on the GoFundMe. "All those who have known Dan are grieving after such a senseless, tragic event. We are asking the community to support Dan and his fiancé Casey to help with all the financial demands they will face in the coming years."
Hayes was arrested on Saturday night in the 300 block of Des Plaines in Forest Park, police said, and he is charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two felony counts of aggravated battery and the discharge of a firearm, police said.
Harrell was arrested on Monday in the 9400 block of S. Ridgeland in Chicago Ridge, and he is charged with one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, one count of unauthorized use of a firearm by a felon, and possession of use of a firearm, police said Tuesday. He was also being sought on an out-of-state warrant and was a fugitive, police said.
Krismantis was arrested on Saturday in Oak Lawn and faces two felony counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, one felony count of aggravated unauthorized use of a weapon, and one misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest or obstructing a police officer, police said.
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