A year after a veteran Arlington Heights police officer was shot in the face in one of the most traumatizing incidents in village history, findings from the ensuing investigations into the matter still have not been released.
The shooting happened on the night of Dec. 12, 2013, when Officer Michael McEvoy – then 52 years old and a 24-year veteran of the department – was shot in the chin area while responding to a domestic incident.
“We have done an after-action review of that incident. We are very satisfied with our response. We’re very satisfied with his recovery,” said Capt. Andrew Whowell. “We have not modified any of our protocols. We thought everything went as smooth as possible.”
McEvoy and three other officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun at a town house in the 1900 block of Windham Court. The cop-shooter identified as Eric M. Anderson of Niles then held his ex-girlfriend hostage. When he and the woman surfaced, police say Anderson pointed a gun at officers, which prompted police to fatally shoot him.
The village said it has conducted an internal investigation and is waiting on the Illinois State Police, which conducts an independent investigation into all police-involved shootings. A state spokeswoman said the case is still pending. Whowell said all of the findings will be released together.
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“We’re still waiting on some reports from the state integrity task force,” Whowell said.
That night, McEvoy was dragged to safety by the other officers. He survived the critical injuries thanks to the now-Arlington Heights Fire Chief, Ken Koeppen, who happened to be down the block and rushed to the officer’s aid in time to stanch the bleeding.
“You reflect on this. You always say, ‘What can you do better or different?’ Quite frankly, there’s nothing we could have done to prevent this,” Whowell said.
McEvoy, who declines to be interviewed, appeared with his neck still bandaged in March, and gave a short speech while accepting the L.W. Calderwood Officer of the Year Award. The hostage from the incident, who was not hurt, also came to the event to thank him, officials said.
“He still has plans on coming back to work. There’s no specific time table yet. He’s still improving on a daily basis,” said Whowell, who speaks with the injured officer a few times a month. “There’s not even been a date discussed. He’s still in physical therapy and rehab.”
And there’s no doubt that the incident continues to make an impact on the department’s 110 officers.
Last summer, the village purchased personal trauma kits, also known as downed officer kits, for each of its officers to carry. Officers also got medical training to be able to use the kit’s tourniquet to stop a traumatic wound and retrained in “active shooter” scenarios like the one that injured McEvoy.
“There were many officers that were traumatized by this,” Whowell said. “It has affected people.”