Thursday, May 20, 2010

Slain officer fought to take back streets in his neighborhood

Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham served two tours of duty in Iraq, but his latest battle had been against rising violence in the Chatham neighborhood where he grew up.

It was a fight he would not survive.

Wortham was gunned down in front of his parents' home late Wednesday night as three men were trying to steal his motorcycle, police say.

Just last week, in an interview with the Tribune, he had decried a recent rash of shootings that forced the alderman of his ward to take down basketball hoops in Cole Park across the street from his parents' house.
"It's starting to feel like it's expected in this community," said Wortham, 30, who was president of the Cole Park advisory council and whose grandfather built the home across from the park 50 years ago.

"When people think of the South Side of Chicago, they think violence. In Chatham, that's not what we see. It's happened, and we're going to fix it, so it doesn't happen again."

Wortham was planning to literally take back the park.

"After the last shooting in the park (in late April) we were going to take back the park on the first 80-degree day," Ald. Freddenna Lyle (6th) said hours after learning Wortham had been killed. "That was this week. We are not going to give up the park to the thugs. The residents were going to converge there with lawn chairs.

"This is a tragedy. This young man survived two tours in Iraq, and came home and got murdered on the streets in front of his house that he grew up in," said Ald. Lyle, who has known the officer and his family for years. "In front of his father, it's just unbelieveable."

Wortham's father, also named Thomas Wortham, is a retired Chicago police sergeant and, like his son, was a military veteran, according to neighbors. His mother, Carolyn Wortham, is a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher.

Both father and son grew up across the street from Cole Park, a cornerstone of Chatham, a neighborhood that is home to judges and teachers, cops and a former Chicago mayor.

By the statistics, the streets around Cole don't reflect a surging crime problem. But after a recent rash of armed robberies, Gresham District Commander Eddie Johnson assigned officers to solve the spree. A man suspected in 15 armed robberies was arrested two months ago.

But gangs have closed in on the area over the last couple years, Johnson said. And because gangs tend to claim public spaces such as parks, the shootings at Cole have been a cause for concern.

"We need to be proactive now to prevent it from becoming a full-blown conflict," Johnson said just last week. "The police can't be there all the time, but if we all work together -- the police, the community, the elected officials -- all of us together ... can make a difference with it."

In an interview with the Tribune in 2009, Wortham's parents said they believed the close-knit atmosphere of the neighborhood -- with strong block clubs, community organizations and churches -- would prevail over the rising crime.

"On my block, people watch out for one another, care about each other. We basically have a really strong sense of community," Carolyn Wortham said.

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