CHICAGO — An off-duty Chicago police officer riding an ATV sped away from on-duty cops twice before he crashed into another vehicle Tuesday evening, according to CPD records and a source.
Raheem Mills, 29, died Wednesday morning from injuries he suffered when his ATV crashed into the side of an SUV near his West Ridge home, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Police responded to Warren Park, 6601 North Western, around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday after 911 callers reported that a man on an ATV was “destroying” the field as they tried to play baseball, according to CPD dispatch records.
An officer reported that the ATV rider sped away through the park to get away from them. The same officer radioed about 30 minutes later that he tried to pull the ATV over a second time, but the rider sped away again.
Within minutes, Mills, riding a gray Yamaha Raptor that matched the one officers saw at Warren Park, plowed into an SUV in the 2500 block of West Bryn Mawr, according to police records.
The driver of a Hyundai Palisade told police that he was turning left onto Maplewood Avenue as Mills sped the wrong way in a westbound traffic lane. As the driver made his turn, Mills slammed into the SUV’s driver’s door, a Chicago police report said.
Rescue workers transported Mills to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston as a “John Doe,” but someone later discovered a Chicago Police Department ID in his pocket, a source said.
Mills joined the Chicago Police Department in March 2018.