While the son of fallen Fox Lake, Illinois Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz fully supports the efforts of Lake County investigators and the effort to catch three suspects in his death, he is upset by the suggestion by a coroner that the veteran officer could have taken his own life.
Donald "D.J." Gliniewicz told The Chicago Daily Herald that his father "never once had a single suicidal thought in his life."
Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd last week raised the possibility that the shooting was self-inflicted, but said that he could not make a determination until he received further information from investigators.
"For someone who didn't know him to go out and question that, then also release information that could jeopardize the investigation ... my entire family isn't happy," D.J. Gliniewicz said.
He stress though that he expects the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force to take their time and not speed through the investigation and skip over any important details.
Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko told the newspaper that investigators are currently treating the case as a homicide, based on the final statements by the 52-year-old officer before he was found shot to death Sept. 1.
Investigators say they are waiting on forensic evidence under examination by three crime labs to help reveal critical answers. That evidence includes ballistic and gunshot residue tests from the officer's gun recovered at the crime scene and final tests on DNA found at the scene.
"We are pursuing this as a homicide, but as is usual in every homicide investigation we have ever handled, nothing is completely off the table," he said. "We go where the facts lead us, and right now, there is too much information that hasn't been processed."
While D.J. Gliniewicz is frustrated by rumors surrounding his father's death, he is hopeful that investigators will soon have concrete answers for his family.
"With their determination, I'm sure they will get to the bottom of this," he said.
