Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Two Chicago police officers investigating a call of shots fired were killed when they were hit by a commuter train Monday night.
Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Conrad Gary, 31, died on the South Side of Chicago around 6:20 p.m., officials said at a news conference.
"We've lost two young men, both fathers with young families," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. This holiday will never be the same for those two families. And while our hearts are with them, we lost people who answered the call to make Chicago a better place."
The officers were responding to a shots fired call when a suspect made his way up to the Metra tracks.
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"These brave young men were consumed with identifying a potential threat," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters at a news conference at the Police Department's South Side headquarters.
Witnesses told WBBM-TV they saw the police chase and heard the screech of the train coming to a stop.
A weapon has been recovered and a person of interest is being questioned at the site where the two newly appointed officers "lost their lives protecting their community from a gunman," Chief Communications Officer Anthony Guglielmi posted on Twitter.
Passengers were escorted off the train and boarded buses to another stop south to be taken on a new train.
Metra officials shut down all traffic on the Metra Electric District tracks as authorities worked at the scene.
Marmolejo had been on the force 2 1/2 years and Gary 18 months.
In 2002, Officer Benjamin Perez was fatally struck by a Metra train on an embankment while conducting an investigation.
On Nov. 20, Officer Samuel Jimenez was killed in a shooting at Mercy Hospital on the South Side.
