A hardworking off-duty Cook County corrections officer was killed in a shootout early Tuesday during an attempted robbery at a gas station in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side, police and relatives said.
Around 1:25 a.m., the deputy, 31-year-old Rafael D. Wordlaw, was at a gas station in the 500 block of East 67th Street when someone approached him and tried to rob him, Chicago police and the Cook County sheriff’s office said.
A shootout ensued. Wordlaw fired his gun, but was shot in his chest, police said. As he attempted to drive away, he slammed into a pole in the 6700 block of South Indiana Avenue, a few blocks west of where he had been shot, police said.
Wordlaw was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead, officials said.
Though a suspect was not detained at the scene, authorities later confirmed that a person of interest was taken into custody later Tuesday.
Wordlaw was a corrections officer at Division 6 of Cook County Jail, according to a sheriff’s office spokesman. He was hired in February 2020.
He was adopted and raised by an aunt, later attending Urban Prep Academy and earning a bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University, his relatives told reporters Tuesday outside the medical examiner’s office.
“We have to do better to stop the senseless violence,” cousin Jordan Wilson told reporters. “That was senseless. He was a hardworking young man. He did not deserve that.”
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In a statement, the sheriff’s office said it was “with the deputy’s family as well as with the Sheriff’s Office team to provide support and resources as they navigate this senseless tragedy.”
Dozens of law enforcement officers saluted Wordlaw’s body as it was brought Tuesday morning to the Cook County medical examiner’s office on the Near West Side.
The shooting unfolded at a Clark gas station at East 67th Street and South Eberhart Avenue. A gas station attendant Tuesday morning said he was not working at the time and would not share surveillance video of the incident.
A woman who said she lives nearby told the Sun-Times she woke up to the sound of “a lot of shots.” Video of the scene shared with television outlets showed at least a dozen shell casings.
The woman said she looked out her window and saw vehicles “scurrying away” from the gunfire. The woman, who asked to be only identified as Michelle, said the block is usually quiet and is home to mostly older residents. The only problems, she said, have involved the gas station.
The gas station is across the street from the Edward G. Irvin Foundation Chicago Alumni Chapter building. The crime scene is also within view of the Chicago Fire Department’s Engine 47 station. A few blocks northwest is the Parkway Gardens housing project, known as “O Block.”
The block where the deputy was shot has seen violence before.
Last Thanksgiving, a man shot someone in the 6700 block of South Eberhart, allegedly after becoming upset he wasn’t invited to dinner. Another man was wounded in a shooting in August. On May 28, 2023, a man was killed while leaving the gas station. Earlier that month, three people were shot inside a car on the same block.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who spoke during the Chicago Police Department’s graduation and promotion ceremony at Navy Pier Tuesday afternoon, offered words of comfort to Wordlaw’s family and promised to hire more detectives to apprehend those responsible.
“First of all, my deepest condolences to the sheriff, as well as to their family. Prayers, of course, are with the family, as this investigation unfolds. Like all violence in the city or anywhere else, people have to be held accountable for their actions,” Johnson said.
“Today, as you saw, the number of detectives that were promoted, this is very much aligned with my value system and what I promise to do, which is to hire more detectives for reasons like this,” Johnson said.
Johnson asserted the city would be getting “at least 200 more detectives” on staff before the end of his first term.
