Fallen officer was community pillar, 'Zen master'

An unidentified daughter of slain Chicago police officer Michael Bailey (center) is consoled by friends Khepera Walker (left) and Constance Walker (right) this morning. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

After more than 20 years as a Chicago Police officer, Michael R. Bailey was ready to enjoy his retirement next month and had purchased a new Buick sedan to celebrate, according to sources.

This morning the decorated officer was still in uniform after working overnight and was in front of his Park Manor home with the prized auto.

"He was coming home from work," said Ald. Freddrena Lyle, 6th. "He had just bought a new car. He was out there shining up his new car and somebody accosted him."

Bailey, a married father of a son and two daughters, was an officer in the Central District who at 5 a.m. had gotten off an overnight shift guarding Mayor Richard Daley's home. Police say up to three men approached him outside his home in the 7400 block of South Evans Avenue at about 6:20 a.m. There was an exchange of gunfire in which Bailey was hit; he later died at a hospital.

Lyle said that just last month she met Bailey's wife and a daughter, who is a college student, at a local event.

Bailey, 62, was to turn 63 in August and reach the department's mandatory retirement age, police said. Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, said Bailey was "looking forward to enjoying retirement."

The alderman said that as soon as she heard about the shooting, she went to Bailey's home, where she consoled his relatives. "They were crying, I was crying," she said.

Lyle represents parts of Park Manor, and the part of Chatham where Officer Thomas Wortham IV was killed on May 20 outside his parents' home.

Lyle said the problems in the community are a result of the loss of the blue-collar jobs and the inadvertent effects of tearing down public-housing high rises and sending their occupants into neighborhoods where they have fewer nearby resources. In the end, it's making some residents think twice about staying in the area.

"How do you convince people to stay in a community when you have armed police officers shot down?" she said. "It's devastating. ... It's like a war out here. I never thought that in my life it would be this way."

Bailey had been involved with the block club in planning a block party for senior citizens. As part of the club's regular monthly meetings where among the topics of concern was abandoned buildings on the block, said Ryane Cook, a neighbor and block club member.

Cook and his wife Angelece were already awake when they heard the gunshots. At first he thought it was fireworks but his wife sensed it was something else.

Angelece Cook looked out one of her windows but didn't see anything. Then the couple heard screaming.

"We heard (his daughter) screaming 'They shot my daddy, somebody shot my daddy!' " she said.

Laying directly in front of his new Buick was Bailey, wearing his uniform with a wind breaker. Sitting on the grass nearby was a bottle of Windex.

"He's had the car three weeks. Every time he came home he wiped it down," Ryane Cook said.

Stephanie Tatum said she received a phone call from the officer's wife at 6:11 a.m. who told her he was shot.

Tatum, who said the officer was godfather to her two sons, said she met him when they were classmates at Chicago State University.

"In college he was a free spirit. When he told me he wanted to be a cop, I was shocked. I said, 'They gonna let you be a police?'"

She described him as a "great Zen master," saying he did Tai Chi.

Vincent Dove, 32, of Dolton knew Bailey's children and grew up a few houses away from the officer's home. A relative called him this morning to let him know about the shooting in his old neighborhood.

He said the officer served as an inspiration in the community, Dove said, adding that he graduated high school and college thanks to the officer's urging.

"Back in high school, I could have gone two different ways," said Dove."He'd tell me that my mom worked too hard for me not to go to school."

"He was a very genuine man," said Khepera Walker, a friend of one of Bailey's daughters, "soft spoken, kindhearted."