Chicago PD: Hank Voight's Forbidden Love

Emotional Fallout

The press was all over the case.  The shooting of five unarmed black teenagers who were honor students with no criminal backgrounds made national news.  All of the major networks and cable news stations provided hour by hour coverage including the body cam footage and cellphone videos provided by the numerous bystanders who had witnessed the horrific events that day.

Attempts were made to interview the only survivor, Marcus "Mark" Mitchell, but the young man was too traumatized to speak with the press.   Dignitaries and the more famous clergymen throughout the country came to Chicago and spoke out vociferously against law enforcement officers who who were using black men as target practice, to quote the lawyer who was representing the five families of the young men.

The four funerals were held together at one of the mega churches on the south side of Chicago because it was believed the individual churches of the four young men would not be able to accommodate the anticipated crowds.  That belief turned out to be correct.  The mega church was packed to overflow capacity as mourners came from all parts of the city and neighboring states to pay their final respects.

Voight and the Intelligence Unit attended but kept a low profile by sitting in the back row of the balcony since they assumed —- correctly — that Chicago policemen would not be especially welcome.  Elena and Mark sat up front with the families and held hands throughout the service.  It was obvious they were holding on to each other now for emotional support because they knew Midian, Byron, Brad, and Leonard in a way that no one else could ever understand.

Voight noticed how stoic Elena was throughout the service, whereas Mark was a wreck.  He found it difficult to maintain his composure and broke down several times during the services.  Elena kept her arm around him and appeared to be the only one who could help Mark keep it together. Even his parents were unable to console him.

Voight also saw the the anguish and unimaginable grief etched on the faces of all of the parents.  He would never forget the look in their eyes. He knew that look all too well. He felt their pain having lost his son, Justin, just a few years earlier.  He also knew their pain would never go away; they would just learn to live with it.  He wished he could impart some words of advice on how to cope with their never ending grief, but he knew there were none.  It would go on and on until one day death would mercifully release them from their emotional prison.

Right  after the funerals outside the church, Voight saw Midian's older brother, Matthew, whom he had briefly met that evening when he picked up Elena in Lake Geneva. He walked up to him to express his condolences although halfway expecting to be rebuffed by the young man. However, much to his surprise Matthew was gracious and even introduced him to his parents as Elena's legal guardian, not mentioning his title of sergeant. Through their grief they still managed to be gracious with Voight and thanked him for coming. They knew that Elena's legal guardian was a Chicago policeman since Midian had spoken to them often about the amazing Sergeant Voight. 

The families had managed to have the boys buried next to one another at Oakwood Cemetery whose most famous resident was the former and first African-American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington.  They knew the boys would want to be together in death as they had always been in life.

At the cemetery during the interment ceremony Mark was so distraught that Elena took him to the car where they remained during the rest of the graveside services.  A repast was held at the church following the interment, and Voight and the team were prepared to go, but neither Elena nor Mark wanted to attend.  They had had enough and just wanted to go to their respective homes.

As for the two police officers who were involved with the deaths, Voight was right on the money with his predictions. Officer Murphy was terminated from the police department for killing Midian, and the State's Attorney's Office charged him with first degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The legal experts predicted that he would probably be convicted of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter since there was no evidence that he willfully with malice aforethought intended to kill the young men. Also as predicted the other patrolman, Ewing, was not fired or charged with a criminal offense inasmuch as he was acting in self-defense when he shot the other boys who were at that point attacking him and Officer Murphy.