A recently promoted Chicago police officer was found dead in a police facility Tuesday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Assistant Principal Dion Boyd, a 30-year veteran, had been promoted less than two weeks ago. He was found dead at the department’s Homan Square facility on the city’s West Side.
“I am very saddened to share with you today the loss of a respected member of our suicide command staff,” Supr. Chicago Police. David Brown said from police headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. “We are shocked, saddened by the loss, and myself and the many colleagues and friends with whom Deputy Director Dion Boyd worked and mentor throughout his career.”
Dion Boyd
(Chicago Police Department)
Boyd, 57, was promoted to deputy director of criminal networks, which focuses on gang and drug investigations, the Chicago Tribune reported. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.
Boyd’s body was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in a long procession.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed her condolences via Twitter.
“We are truly speechless over the death of Deputy Director of Criminal Networks Dion Boyd, who passed away last night,” he wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, Lightfoot reminded city police officers that “we want you to know that you deserve help and healing, and that no one needs to fight alone.”
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If his death is considered suicide, Boyd would be the 10th Chicago police officer to die by suicide in two years. A 2017 review of the department by the Justice Department found that its suicide rate was 60 percent higher than the national average.
Sources who recently met with Boyd said he was optimistic, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. However, those who knew him said that he fought with the death of one of his officers who was shot dead in 2018.
