Jerell Thomas 

Jerell Thomas, a resident of the 4100 block of West Cermak Road in Chicago, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the line-of-duty death of Oak Park Detective Allan Reddins. 

Thomas has also been charged with attempted murder of a peace officer, possession of a stolen firearm and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.  

Reddins, 40, was fatally shot shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday while responding to a call of a man with a gun leaving a bank on the 1000 block of Lake Street in downtown Oak Park. 

The shooting took place during the Black Friday start to the holiday shopping season, as many people made their way to and from the downtown area along Lake Street. 

Detective Allan Reddins 

A statement from the village read that the “Oak Park Fire Department responded to a call of shots fired at about 9:36 a.m. on the 800 block of Lake Street …. (Reddins) had been wounded in his left side. He was taken to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 10:10 a.m.” 

“The alleged offender,” the statement said, “was shot in the leg. He is in custody and is being treated at Loyola and is in stable condition.” 

Reddins had apparently confronted a man on the south side of Lake Street, a couple hundred feet west of the intersection at Oak Park Avenue. 

One witness told reporters that he heard “about six gunshots,” and after a brief pause, several more shots fired. Another man said he heard “12 to 15 shots.” 

Another witness to the shooting told NBC Channel 5 that he saw police retrieve a handgun from the wounded suspect, and that at least one other gun was present. 

“They were checking his pockets, and they found a little handgun, but off to the side there was an ARP, with a flashlight,” the young man told NBC 5, possibly referring to an AR-15 rifle. “I don’t know which gun he used to shoot at the cops, but he had multiple guns on him.” 

Oak Park Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson declined to comment on any details of the incident, citing the ongoing investigation into the deadly shooting.  

Thomas is considered a habitual criminal by investigators with a previous history of multiple arrests for aggravated battery to a police officer, domestic battery, battery and resisting a police officer. 

Clearly trying to control her emotions, Johnson called Reddins, who joined the department in 2019, a “natural born leader and devoted father,” who “loved his mother.” 

“He (was) definitely a family man. The Oak Park police personnel, Johnson added, “are a family. We support each other.” 

That family, she said, “is hurting.” 

Purple bunting honoring slain Oak Park police Detective Allan Reddins hangs from a balcony above the entrance to the Oak Park police station at Village Hall. (Photo by Bill Dwyer/for Chronicle Media) 

Shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, dozens of uniformed police officers and firefighters lined up outside Loyola Medical Center, standing in salute to the fallen officer. An American flag hung from the extended ladder of a Fire Department truck as the ambulance carrying Reddins’ body passed under it. 

As the ambulance carrying Reddins’ body went east on the Eisenhower Expressway en route to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office on the Southwest Side of Chicago, a fire truck was parked in silent salute on each overpass along the route. 

As tragic as Friday’s even was, it could have been even worse. The multiple bursts of gunshots were fired on a heavily trafficked street, across from the ground floor entry area of the village’s main library, where people of all ages routinely pass through to access the facility. One large plate glass window on the south side of the library, facing Lake Street, had four large bullet holes across a three-foot section, at about chest height for an average male. 

Per standard Oak Park Police Department policy, the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force was called in to assist with the investigation of the shooting. The Task Force’s role is considered routine when an officer is involved in a shooting, according to police. 

While the medical condition of the suspect in Reddins’ murder is characterized as “stable,” it is not known when he will be released from the hospital, or when he will stand before a judge in bond court at the Maybrook Courthouse off in Maywood.