CHICAGO– Hundreds of mourners lined the streets Monday to say goodbye to a Chicago police officer who was shot and killed while off-duty and on his way home from work.
Police officers, firefighters and others gathered along the funeral procession route to St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel in Chicago to remember 30-year-old officer Luis M. Huesca. The six-year veteran of the police department was just two days shy of his 31st birthday when he was killed.
Huesca was shot multiple times on the city’s southwest side shortly before 3 a.m. on April 21. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Huesca was in uniform, but wore something over the uniform to cover it, as is customary for off-duty officers, Chief Larry Snelling said.
Police have said officers responded to a gunshot detection alert and found the officer outside with gunshot wounds. His vehicle was seized, but police could not confirm whether the shooting was part of a carjacking.
An arrest warrant was issued last week for a 22-year-old man suspected in the shooting. The Associated Press is not naming the suspect because he has yet to be arrested and arraigned.
According to police, the man should be considered armed and dangerous.
Released Sunday evening, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he would attend Huesca’s funeral, but an update sent to reporters Monday morning said he would not attend.
The change came after Susana Mendoza, an Illinois Democrat, said in an early Monday morning post on social platform X that the officer’s mother asked Mendoza to tell Johnson he was “not welcome” at the funeral. Mendoza said she and state Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, also a Democrat, called Johnson on Sunday evening to relay the message.
“We continue to extend our deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of Officer Luis Huesca as they heal from the loss of their beloved son, nephew, brother and friend,” Johnson said in a written statement Monday morning. “As mayor, I pledge to continue to support our police and first responders, unite our city, and remain committed to working with everyone to build a better, stronger, and safer Chicago.”
Huesca was friends with Chicago police officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso who was killed in a shootout in March 2023 after responding to a domestic violence call. Huesca had honored Vásquez Lasso in a video.
Fellow officer Lucia Chavez said during the service Monday that she was friends with Vásquez Lasso and Huesca.
“When we were in the academy, I remember… during our training the instructor said, ‘This uniform makes us family.’ If one fell, we all fell,” Chavez said. ‘I didn’t understand that. Now I understand that. I lost Andrés first. And now, Luis. I lost my two classmates, my best friends, my brothers. the violence in this city has taken them from me and from us.”
Snelling, the superintendent, said Huesca “left an impression.”
“He always tried to leave things better than he found them,” Snelling says. “The protection of others is what he wanted every day.”
Huesca was born in Chicago’s Avondale community. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago, according to his obituary.
He is survived by his parents, Emiliano and Edith Huesca; a sister, Liliana O’Brien; and a brother, Emiliano Huesca Jr.
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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
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This story has been updated to correct that the Illinois comptroller’s first name is Susana, not Susan.