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player ready...The funeral arrangements have been set for Aréanah Preston a week after the Chicago police officer was fatally shot as she returned home from a late-night shift.
Preston will be remembered at a visitation Tuesday from 3 to 8 p.m. at Oak Lawn’s Blake-Lamb Funeral Home, 4727 W. 103rd St. Her funeral will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St., according to the Chicago Police Department.
The 24-year-old officer had been described as a rising star dedicated to public safety by Tyrone Pendarvis, commander of the 5th District where she worked.
“She was a lion,” Pendarvis said at a vigil honoring Preston last Tuesday. “She was a delight of a person — and that’s the type of officer we need.”
Preston was getting ready to celebrate her graduation from Loyola University Chicago with a master’s degree in child and family law when she was killed, her mother Dionne Mhoon said. Preston’s family remembered the officer as an “intelligent” and “happy” person.
“She was all of that and more,” Preston’s grandfather told the Tribune shortly after her death. “I can’t speak about her without breaking up.”
Preston had parked her car and began walking toward her Avalon Park home when she was attacked, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Three people jumped out of a sedan and ran toward her, surveillance video cited by prosecutors shows. In the video, a muzzle flashed, and Preston fell. She had been wearing her uniform when she was shot, prosecutors said.
Four teens arrested two days after the l shooting are being held without bond. Prosecutors have charged them with murder as well as a slew of other felonies, including robbery and arson.
The Police Department suffered a similar tragedy when Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso was shot and killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic-related call in Gage Park in early March.
Hundreds of police and first responders gathered outside St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel as family and friends shared emotional tributes during Vásquez Lasso’s funeral mass.