The suspect was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where a group of uniformed and plainclothes officers stood outside the entrance of the emergency room this evening.

Calvin Jefferson, 28, said the suspect is his brother and was in critical but stable condition  after being shot in the chest. “I’m still shocked,” said Jefferson, adding that his brother has always been a bit of a loner who is secretive and didn’t talk much to others.

Jefferson’s girlfriend, Theresa Jones, said she believed the suspect has mental issues.

Jefferson said despite his brother’s withdrawn behavior, his family never looked into the possibility of mental illness.  

Soderberg was an 11-year veteran, according to Jackson. Friends said he was married but had no children.

Soderberg was typically an instructor at the training academy, but was operating out of 61st and Racine as part of Operation Protect Youth.

“If your son or daughter came on the job, he’s the guy you’d want to train them,” said Assistant Deputy Supt. Matthew Tobias, who used to run the academy. “He understood what the oath meant. He understood what a priviledge it was to wear the uniform of a Chicago police officer.”

Tobias said Soderberg had served as a combat engineer in the Army and described him as “a solid, tough copper willing to go out there. He understood the job.”

The class he teaches at the training academy is set to graduate next week. Officials said Soderberg dropped in to check on his class earlier Wednesday on his lunch break.

The shooting left those who knew the officer stunned by the sudden loss.

 

 

Chicago Police Officer Thor Soderberg (left) and Mazen Istanbouli (right) during a 2007 triathlon in Chicago. (Photo provided by Istanbouli)

“I want people to know that he’s a great man and gave the Chicago Police a great name,” said Mazen Istanbouli, a DePaul professor and close friend of the officer. “He was a giver, he never thought of himself and always thought of others.”

 

 

Istanbouli, who is blind, said Soderberg helped him train and competed by his side in triathlons.

Istanbouli said the two had known each other for about three years. Istanbouli said Soderberg accompanied him to the New York City and Chicago triathalons, running and biking and swimming alongside him and serving as his guide.

The two most recently ran together at a run for fallen police officers in Chicago this spring. Just today, Istanbouli said, he brought up Soderberg’s name because he wanted the officer to accompany him at an upcoming bicycle race.

Istanbouli recalled Soderberg’s humility, particularly after they ran a race and Istanbouli tried to thank him: “He said, ‘I’m doing this for you not for me, I don’t need the medal, I’m doing it for you.’ He helped me out with training and he helped me out throughout the process with swimming and running and biking, the whole thing we did everything.”

He said his friend is always in his mind when he hears about police tragedies because “police officers’ lives are always out there. It’s just shocking.”

Soderberg wrote on a Web site that acting as Istanbouli’s guide “is a gift for me. To be able to help someone else enjoy the sport I have been able to participate in since the mid-nineties is truly a blessing.”

Soderberg added that “sports, and triathlons specifically, are a great way to get in touch with yourself and to learn about what you thought limits were. … That is what brought me to triathlons and keeps me doing them into this decade, and hopefully, for many decades to come.”

Police officers and family gathered outside the slain officer’s home on the South Side this evening. Police guarding the door to the family’s home said relatives would have no comment.

Soderberg’s body was taken to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, where an autopsy  is scheduled Thursday. An office spokesman would not provide any other details of the officer.

Around 8:30 p.m., officers held blue and white umbrellas over Soderberg’s family as they pulled up to their home and walked through the rain to their front door.

Dennis Nyers, who lives across the street from the officer, said he often saw him on his way to work and that the officer would always wave and say “hi.”

“He was a nice, good person,” said Nyers. “He didn’t bother nobody, he minded his own business.”

Valerie Carroll  said that while she didn’t know Soderberg personally he always smiled and waved at her and her three children. She said she often saw him running in the neighborhood.

“He was friendly. He made us feel safe,” said Carroll, 45, who lives across the street from the officer. “He was one of the good ones.”

The mayor’s office released a statement Wednesday night.

“On behalf of the City of Chicago, I extend my condolences to the family of our fallen officer, who died today after being shot in the line of duty,” Daley said in the release. “It is a sad day for all Chicagoans when a law enforcement officer is killed carrying out his responsibility to protect us. I ask everyone to keep the officer’s family in their thoughts and prayers.”

Mark Donahue, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, said: “It’s quite apparent that not only have we lost a brother-in-arms, but the entire population of this city has lost someone that, had you known him, you’d be very proud to call him one of your own as well.”

“I don’t know what to say,” said Ald. JoAnn Thompson (16th), whose ward covers the area around the station. “It just makes me sad.”

“That one individual does not speak for this whole ward,” Thompson said of the man who shot Soderberg.  “And I know there’s a lot of crime, but there’s still a lot of good people here, too.”

Cheri Ricardo, 41, said she lives across the street from the police building and heard about 10 gunshots, but didn’t think too much about it because the neighborhood has been growing more violent despite the police presence.

Ricardo, who has six children, said there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood. She has lived across from the police building for about two years, and she said the police building, along with another police facility, hasn’t helped reduce violence.

“This neighborhood is exactly what it is, it’s wild,” said Ricardo. “That police station in my opinion did not stop any immediate crime in this neighborhood. … It’s not doing any good.”

She said gang members in the area are “bad and bold, they do not care and have no respect or anything. They still shoot up and down the street when they want to.”

Ricardo said she felt bad for the officer, who she believed was doing his job to protect people in the neighborhood.

“The police officer’s family has to bury that man, but he was just doing his job,” Ricardo said. “If they shoot a police officer right there in their backyard, what do you think they would do to me and my kids? It’s sad.”

The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates shootings involving Chicago police officers, were gathering evidence on the scene this evening, said IPRA spokesman Mark Smith.

Police said the suspect has an extensive criminal history. Cook County court records show he has been arrested more than a dozen times over the years, mainly for possession of cannabis.

Most of those cases were dismissed, except for a 2006 case when he pleaded guilty to possession and received two years probation. In May of 2009, he pleaded guilty to marijuana possession and received one year of conditional discharge, which he completed satisfactorily on May 21.

Rex W. Huppke, Cynthia Dizikes, Serena Maria Daniels, William Lee and Brian Cox contributed.

– Annie Sweeney, Jeremy Gorner and Carlos Sadovi