Three police deaths prod Chicago reflection

CHICAGO -- White-gloved officers line a city block as the strains of bagpipes break the silence of a cold, bright morning. A grieving widow follows a flag-draped coffin into a church.

For the third time in less than nine months, members of the Chicago Police Department mourned a veteran officer shot to death in the line of duty.

The killings -- along with another shooting that left an officer partially paralyzed -- have police brass reassessing procedures, and the rank and file grasping for answers.

"I knew it was going to happen when I got on the job, and then I didn't go to any funerals for the first year and a half. And now three in a row," said Joe Krettek, who joined the force in 1999.

"I'm not getting used to it," he said.

After more than two years without a fatal shooting, two Chicago police officers were killed last summer. Brian Strouse, 33, was shot while investigating a report of gunfire in an alley, allegedly by a 16-year-old gang member. Eric Lee, 37, was killed trying to break up a fight, also in an alley.

Then last week, 47-year-old Donald Marquez was shot to death while trying to serve an arrest warrant. Police said that after repeated attempts to coax the suspect from his apartment failed, Marquez broke down the door and was met by a barrage of gunfire.

He left behind a wife, four children and a 2-week-old grandchild.

The latest shooting has prompted police to consider whether officers should change the way they serve subpoenas and make arrests in civil cases. Marquez and his partner were trying to arrest a 77-year-old man Monday who had been cited for 29 housing violations and had ignored several subpoenas.

Marquez was in plain clothes and not wearing a bulletproof vest, a violation of police code. He was shot once in the head and twice in the chest.

"The bottom line is whenever a police officer is shot and killed, something went wrong somewhere," said department spokesman Pat Camden.