South Cook News

Chicago Police Officer, Dan Golden, 32, played in a charity softball fundraiser for families dealing with cancer July 8. After the game, he went to Sean’s Rhino Bar in Beverly on Chicago's South Side where something unexpected happened.

An altercation broke out at the bar and Golden, who identified himself as a police officer, tried to intervene when someone shot him in the back, severing his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, WGN News reported.

"The men and women of the Chicago Police Department and all of our Cook County officers selflessly run into harm’s way to protect the lives of others - on and off duty,” said Keith Pekau, mayor of Orland Park and a congressional candidate for Illinois’s 6th District, in a July 12 Facebook post. “Today, Betty and I are praying for Officer Dan Golden. At age 32, he was left paralyzed after being shot by three men in a bar.”

Demitrius Harrell, 28, Bryant Hayes, 22, and Justen Krismantis, 22, are all facing charges related to the shooting, according to WGN News.

Hayes and Krismantis were charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to CBS News. Harrell was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm and two weapons counts.

In July 2017, Harrell was charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, WGN reported. In September 2018, Harrell pleaded guilty to attempted bank robbery by intimidation. According to court records, Harrel threatened to shoot a bank manager in Calumet City if the manager didn't give him $40,000.

"His life changed in a snap of a finger," Liam Hopkins, Golden’s friend, told CBS News. "And what he's done for seven years - he protects this community in the city. He selflessly takes himself into action, and he's there debriefing, and all he does is love what he does every day is law enforcement."

Pekau pledged to support the investigation and thanked the Chicago Police Department and Cook County Sherrif’s Office for their response to “this tragedy.”

“It is a terrible day for the people of Cook County,” Pekau said. “They are less safe today, as an attack on any officer has a chilling effect on ranks of a department already struggling to fill police vacancies. The three individuals who perpetrated this attack need to face very swift and exacting justice."

Nearly 400 Chicago police officers were shot or shot at in 2020, and 76 CPD officers were shot or shot at in 2021, according to a Wirepoints report. Two CPD officers were killed in 2021. In 2022, 25 CPD officers have been shot at as of June 8.