George Marlowe
Last Friday, a 32-year-old man died on a commuter train traveling from the south suburbs of Chicago to Fox Lake, Illinois.
Jamal Parks died from a gunshot wound to the head in Deerfield, Illinois, in the midst of a dangerous police shootout aboard a passenger-filled train. The details of his death remain quite murky.
A preliminary autopsy report from the Lake County coroner released on Tuesday claimed that his death was self-inflicted by a single gunshot wound to the head. However, initial reports also suggested that police officers shot and killed him. The findings were released by the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force, but the coroner’s office is expected to provide a final ruling after further forensic testing.
Parks was alleged to have been a suspect in the death of a man in the suburb of Evergreen Park. Video footage showed that three men killed a man inside an SUV in a Walgreens parking lot, according to Orland Park police chief Tim McCarthy, spokesperson for the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.
Parks departed from Evergreen Park last Friday night on the Milwaukee District North Line Metra train. According to Illinois State Police, the West Division police officers of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force followed him in plainclothes on the train. When the train stopped at the station at 10:30 p.m. in Deerfield, Illinois, north of Chicago, the officers requested assistance from the Deerfield Police Department.
According to the Illinois State Police, the plainclothes officers and the Deerfield police surrounded the stopped train. Officers both inside and outside were allegedly preparing for Parks to leave the train at Deerfield. When he failed to…