For 30-year-old off-duty police officer Thomas Wortham IV, who had just returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq, the South Side neighborhood of Chatham proved even more dangerous than the war zone he had just left, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported. He was killed on South Side.
He was shot in the head and killed by would-be robbers at his parents' home last Wednesday. His father, himself a retired police sergeant and a military veteran, had been sitting on the front porch and came to his son's defense.
Mayor Richard Daley held a press conference after the shooting, just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court's widely expected overturn of Chicago's controversial ban on handguns. He was asked whether Thomas Wortham's death will provide a boost to the city's efforts to keep the handgun ban intact:
"I hope it does. Here's a young man [who] served twice in Iraq. [His] father's a police officer, an unbelievable police officer... It should wake up America."
The victim grew up in Chatham and had become active in the community.
He was leaving his parents' home at about 11:30 p.m. and sitting on his motorcycle when two men approached and attempted to rob him. His father, who was not named in the article, announced loudly that he was a police officer but one of the men then shot Thomas Wortham in the head. He shot two attackers, killing one and injuring another, while the other two got away.
Thomas Wortham was pronounced dead shortly after the incident.
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) is a close friend of the family's and said she was outraged that such an intelligent young man could survive war but have his life taken from him in his own neighborhood:
"You go to Iraq. It's a war zone. You come back to a community you've been safe in all of your life and lose your life?"
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