Hoffman Estates pledges $5,000 reward in Fox Lake officer's slaying
Hoffman Estates officials Tuesday unwittingly took over the lead in an effort to raise reward money among area municipalities for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for last week's fatal shooting of Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.
Hoffman Estates' village board members voted 6-0 to donate $5,000 to Crime Stoppers for such information - but with the belief that Buffalo Grove had already started the movement with a $10,000 donation of its own.
However, Buffalo Grove Trustee Jeff Berman said his colleagues' intent to do so had not yet reached formal action when law enforcement officials advised them not to publicize such a commitment for the time being.
Berman said this was about the time last week that a false lead ultimately led to the charging of a Vernon Hills woman for providing it, and law enforcement officials felt the announcement of more reward money might do more harm than good in the short-term.
"They did not believe it would be beneficial to their investigation to do that," Berman added.
He credited fellow Buffalo Grove Trustee Steve Trilling with coming up with idea, and calling fellow trustees individually to check that they had no objection to it.
But while the trustees have been given no reason to change their minds about making such a donation in due time, it's not yet reached the formal vote that occurred in Hoffman Estates Tuesday.
Berman said the idea was spread to other municipalities belonging to the Northwest Municipal Conference, and Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod said that's where he heard of it.
But McLeod expressed no doubt Tuesday that helping another community in the region in such a way was the right thing to do.
"This is a neighbor of ours," McLeod said of Fox Lake. "But for the grace of God, it could have been any one of us."
Late last week, Motorola Solutions announced a $50,000 reward of its own for information leading to the arrests of those responsible for Gliniewicz's death.
Berman said that announcement, too, was made after Buffalo Grove was advised not to publicize any reward efforts of its own.