- Choking back sobs Tuesday, Chicago Police Officer Thomas Vargas told a jury how he shone his flashlight on his bleeding, fallen partner after a hail of bullets showered across a vacant Englewood lot.
“I could feel the rounds over my head as I tried to reach for my weapon,” Vargas said, his voice faltering as he testified against Shawn Gaston, a reputed gang member charged with Officer Alejandro “Alex” Valadez’s murder.
Vargas never got a chance to aim at his partner’s assailants as the blinding muzzle flashes whizzed past him in the 6000 block of South Hermitage. But as soon as the shooting stopped, Vargas rushed to the dying Valadez, 27."
He was lying on the ground face up with his eyes opened. . . . I continued to talk to him but he never responded,” Vargas said as Valadez’s relatives quietly sobbed in Cook County Judge Jorge Alonso’s courtroom.
A good showing of blue at the early portion of the trial while afternoon attendance was slimmer, but still good. A couple of comments say Anita Alvarez's opening statement was quite a piece of work. The trial continues today.