ROGERS PARK — Seventy years after Rogers Park Det. Charles A. Brady and his partner were killed in the line of duty, his son's $10,000 donation to the district by way of the "Get Behind The Vest" foundation provided dozens of Far North officers with new bulletproof vests.
During a ceremony Friday, officers were presented with their new vests by Rogers Park District Cmdr. Roberto Nieves, said CAPS facilitator Pat Kenny, who was in attendance and also made a donation to the organization.
Kenny said the new vests are lighter but safer for officers.
Ben Brady, the detective's son, had offered the donation in the name of his father, who was shot and killed alongside his partner, George Helstern, near a Currency Exchange at Clark and Lunt. It was the same site of a shooting caught on tape in June of this year.
Since Get Behind The Vest launched in September 2014, more than $1.55 million has been raised and 2,757 new vests have been distributed. The organization said its goal is to raise $4 million to distribute 8,000 vests to officers across the city.
According to the organization, an officer's vest needs to be replaced every five years and can be rendered unusable after just one hit from a bullet — a costly reality when officers are responsible for forking over at least $500 of their own money for the vest.
Of the deaths of on-duty police officers in Chicago, 75 percent were related to gunfire. Police deaths from guns have risen 61 percent across the country since 2013, the organization says on its website.
According to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, in 1945 Brady and Helstern were in plain clothes when they approached a man they thought looked suspicious and identified themselves as police as they walked up. The shooter, Cecil Smith, immediately opened fire, killing Helstern and critically injuring Brady, who died hours later at St. Francis Hospital. Before Smith could flee, a civilian opened fire on him, but did not kill him.
According to a Tribune article shortly after the incident, several suspects were being considered in the pair's slaying.
Ultimately, Smith was killed by members of his own gang who feared he would reveal the identities of his fellow gang members to police, according to Officer Down Memorial Page, a website dedicated to chronicling fallen officers.
The memorial foundation's entry listed Brady as being married with nine children and one unborn baby on the way.
Now, one of those children is actively working to make sure officers walking the same beats as his father have the protection they need to get the job done safely.
Those wishing to donate to the Get Behind The Vest foundation can do so here.
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