Police may soon have "significant" evidence to
announce in this week's killing of an Illinois police officer, including
footage from a home security video system in the area of the shooting, an
official said Thursday.
Any video in the
area could help authorities determine who shot and killed Fox Lake police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz on Tuesday morning. Until now, police
have described the suspects only as two white men and a black man --
descriptions of people that Gliniewicz had indicated he'd encountered shortly before the
shooting.
A homeowner in
Fox Lake, a community of about 10,000 people in northern Illinois, turned over
his surveillance video after telling police that he saw people in the area,
Lake County Major Crime Task Force commander George Filenko said Thursday.
Local
investigators don't have the proper equipment to see the recording, so the footage
was given to a nearby Department of Homeland Security office, and police hope
to learn what it shows soon.
"We have
retrieved ... what we believe to be some significant video," Filenko said.
"Until we review it, we're not confirming whether these are the same
people that we're talking about."
Filenko didn't
say when the video was recorded or reveal how the homeowner described the
individuals.
Meanwhile, a
source involved in the investigation told CNN on Thursday that Gliniewicz's gun
was fired on the morning, though it's not clear who discharged the weapon.
The gun was
recovered at the crime scene, the source said on condition of anonymity.
It's not clear
how Gliniewicz's gun figures into the killing. Police have declined to answer
questions about whose gun was used to kill him.
The last day of work
Gliniewicz was on his way to work
Tuesday morning, in the cruiser that he had taken home the day before, when he
saw three suspicious people, Filenko said earlier this week.
This would not
have been unusual as Gliniewicz was the type of officer who considered himself
on duty as soon as he rolled into town, Filenko said.
The lieutenant made the first call at 7:52 a.m. and called three
minutes later to request backup. The backup units arrived at 8:01 and found their fellow officer dead,
roughly 50 yards from his vehicle, at 8:09, Filenko said.
Authorities
initially marked off a 2-square-mile area across tricky terrain and brought in
helicopters, K-9 units, federal agents, night-vision equipment and body-heat
sensors. Police cleared every home in the cordoned-off area and fielded more
than 100 tips, Filenko said.
On Wednesday,
they widened the search area.
So far, police have found no witnesses.
Besides the home security video that Filenko mentioned Thursday,
police say they also have one video from a truck driver who had a camera in his
vehicle and was in the area Tuesday.
An autopsy was
completed, but authorities aren't releasing the results yet, Filenko said. The
Northern Illinois Police Crime Laboratory is expediting its review of evidence
to determine whether there was any fingerprint or DNA transfer.
Filenko said
results from the review could come Thursday evening or Friday morning.
A challenging search
The FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined in the hunt. More than 400 law
enforcement officers raked
through the heavy woods near Fox Lake on foot, all-terrain vehicles and
horseback.
Local police officers
have volunteered to come in while they're off duty, and other law enforcement
officers in the surrounding area have called to offer their assistance, Filenko
said.
Following a false lead
On Wednesday night, an Illinois woman
sent 100 officers scrambling after saying she saw two men who fit the
description of the cop killers police have been looking for.
But after hours
of searching, police said, they discovered she had made the whole story up.
"It's very
disappointing because our resources could have been used somewhere else,"
Lake County sheriff's Detective Christopher Covelli said early Thursday
morning.
On Wednesday night, Kristin B. Kiefer, 30, called police and
said she was driving and pulled over near a cornfield because she was having
car trouble, Covelli said.
Kiefer told
officers a white man and a black man tried to get in her car, Covelli said. She
said when she picked up her phone to call police, the two men fled into the
cornfield.
More than 100
federal, state and local law enforcement officers descended on the area
overnight. Eleven K-9 officers and three aircraft also responded to the tip.
But Kiefer later
admitted she fabricated the story because she was looking for attention,
Covelli said.
She was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct -- one
felony, one misdemeanor -- due to the false report, the detective said.
Kiefer was being
held Thursday morning at the Lake County jail and is scheduled to have a bond
hearing later in the day.
Gliniewicz was a
hero to many in Fox Lake. Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday night for a
vigil to honor the 30-year police veteran. He led the local police explorers'
program, mentoring and training youths interested in becoming officers.
He was also a
husband and father of four.
"Joe was my best friend and my world. My hero,"
Melodie Gliniewicz told more than 1,000 people at the candlelight vigil
Wednesday evening.
She said her
husband was "the love of my life for the last 26½ years. He was my rock as
much as I was his rock."
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