'We had to get in': How Gurnee police saved wounded woman and toddler from gunman

Gurnee police Officer Dan Ruth wasn't sure what awaited him on the other side of the patio screen door the night of July 3. He just knew he and his fellow officers needed to get through it.

The door was all that stood between them and a woman who had been shot in the abdomen and her toddler son.

Also lurking somewhere on the other side was the man who'd shot her, still armed with a gun and clearly willing to use it.

Ruth and fellow officers Tom Branick and Tom Yencich went in anyway.

“I credit it to our commitment to training,” Ruth said of their ability to stay focused on the task at hand in that moment. “Preparation. Mindset. And knowing that we had to get in and get her and the child out, or otherwise they might not survive.”

Up to that point, it had been a routine Friday night on patrol for Ruth, a seven-year department veteran and one of its police dog handlers. Then at about 9:30 p.m., a report of shots fired at an apartment building came in. Not long after, police learned a woman had been shot.

Ruth and Branick were first to arrive. They walked to the back of the apartment and heard a faint cry for help. Peering through the patio screen, they spotted the woman lying inside, her son nearby. She'd been shot, she told the officers, and the man who shot her was still inside.

Yencich soon arrived and the three officers quickly formed a plan: Ruth and Yencich would go in for the woman and child, while Branick provided cover in case the shooter appeared.

Ruth went in first, forcing open the screen and reaching the woman. Her son, at first scared by the intrusion, started to move further into the apartment, but Ruth was able to coax him back. He grabbed the boy and pulled him to safety while Yencich carried the woman to a waiting ambulance. She survived her injuries.

After a lengthy standoff and several unsuccessful attempts to talk the gunman into surrendering, a drone was sent into the apartment, police said. The man, who authorities said had a domestic relationship with the victim, was found dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“We were given an opportunity to save a life that night, but I believe every police officer in Gurnee and across the nation would have done the same thing,” Ruth told us Thursday. “That's the profession.”

Honors and a surprise

Ruth, Branick and Yencich were honored this week before the Gurnee village board for their lifesaving actions. Ruth received the Medal of Valor for “bravery and heroism beyond the normal demands of police work.” Branick, a three-year department vet, and Yencich, a Gurnee officer for eight years, received the Meritorious Service Award for exceptional service in a stressful emergency situation.

But the highlight of the night for the officers was the unexpected reunion with the woman they saved, Eboni Hardge. It was the first time they'd seen her since helping her to an ambulance July 3.

“Nothing I can say substitutes seeing the survivor here tonight,” Branick said Monday. “I've actually thought of her almost every day. We were there at the scene, but we don't always know what happens after. You can't help but wonder what they're going through. Just seeing her here makes my day.”

Bail for man serving life?

Could a man serving a life sentence in connection with a notorious Northwest suburban killing soon walk free on bail?

That'll be up to Cook County Judge Steven Goebel, who three weeks from today will hold a bail hearing for Ronald Kliner.

It's a surprising move, but Goebel last month agreed to consider bail for Kliner, a former Des Plaines man initially sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty of the murder-for-hire of a Palatine Township woman in 1988. The sentence was converted to natural life by then-Gov. George Ryan in 2003.

Kliner has maintained his innocence since his 1996 conviction and this year filed a court motion arguing that new evidence - including DNA and an alibi - exonerates him.

Prosecutors said Kliner shot Dana Rinaldi five times in the head as she pleaded for her life outside her home. They say the slaying was orchestrated by Kliner's childhood friend and Rinaldi's husband, Joseph Rinaldi, who turned state's evidence against Kliner to avoid a potential death sentence of his own.

Kliner, 59, won't be in court for his hearing Oct. 23 but will be allowed to attend via Zoom.

No new trial for baby's killer

A West Chicago man serving 45 years in prison for the brutal killing of his 3-month-old son shouldn't get another trial so he can claim it was an accident, a state appeals court ruled this week.

In its unanimous decision, the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois said all the evidence suggests Gustavo Torres-Medel meant to kill the boy, named Gustavo Jr., when he viciously beat and squeezed him because he wouldn't stop crying.

The boy suffered seven broken ribs, extensive bruises and bleeding on the brain, as well as bites on his cheeks and buttocks, in the 2009 beating, authorities said.

But in his latest bid for a new trial, Torres-Medel argued that the boy's rib injuries weren't caused by him but instead by first responders performing CPR. If presented to a jury, he argued, it would support his claim that he didn't intend to kill his son.

However, in rejecting that argument, Justice Susan F. Hutchinson wrote that there's no evidence first responders caused the rib injuries, and even then it doesn't explain the brain injuries that contributed to the boy's death.

“Defendant seems to suggest that, here, the ultimate cause of his son's death is paramount in determining whether defendant could be guilty of first-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter,” Hutchinson wrote. “It is not. What is paramount is whether defendant acted recklessly or intentionally in causing the baby's death. The circumstances of this case overwhelmingly reveal that defendant acted with the intent to kill his son.”

Torres-Medel, 37, is serving his sentence at the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg. He won't be eligible for parole until 2054.

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