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Mel Gliniewicz took a deep breath before addressing hundreds of people at a lakeside vigil in honor of her slain husband, Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, as the sun began to set Wednesday.

Before she could speak, her four sons dutifully lowered the microphone for her and she smiled at them. “I know, I’m short.”

Her oldest son put his hand above his head and then lowered it above hers. “We kept you,” she joked, and the crowd laughed.

Then it was time to remember her husband, a 30-year veteran of the force who was gunned down the day before while chasing three suspects.

“I want to start out expressing my deepest gratitude to my tried and true, my blood and my blue,” she said. “We all lost somebody yesterday. A husband, a father, a son, a brother, a mentor, a leader, a role model and a friend. And of course, a brother in blue.

“Joe was my best friend, my world, my hero, the love of my life for the last 26 and a half years,” she continued, reading from a yellow sheet of paper and surrounded by her four boys. “He was my rock as much as I was his rock. Every night, he came home to me.

“He was the most wonderful, caring and loving father to our boys,” she said. “My world got a little bit smaller with his passing, and he will truly be missed by all of us. Thank you, everybody.”

The crowd, many of them in uniform, applauded and cheered again as her sons escorted Gliniewicz off the stage.

Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit, who called Gliniewicz his dear friend, later told the crowd that he “had a hole in his heart.”

Schmit said he and Gliniewicz had recently talked about the officer’s plans to retire and his desire to see the police Explorers program continue, the mayor said. The program gives aspiring officers an up-close experience with policing.

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Even those he’d pulled over praised him. Tim Gilchrist called him “the best officer Fox Lake has had in my 43 years here.”

When Gliniewicz pulled him over after he sleepily jumped the gun on a red light driving home around midnight one Christmas eve, Gliniewicz let him off with a warning, he said.

“He was a stand-up guy who always treated everyone like a person,” Gilchrist said.

Police have reported no arrests in the shooting and have said nearly 100 officials continue searching for the suspects.