An off-duty Cook County corrections officer shot and killed a colleague and friend in Calumet City early Saturday morning in what police believe was a prank gone awry, authorities said.
Arlin McClendon, 36, was a passenger in a car headed east on Sibley Boulevard about 1:12 a.m. when he spotted a fellow corrections officer’s car in front of him, said Calumet City Police Chief Patrick O’Meara.
The driver with McClendon, also a corrections officer, began honking the horn and flashing the vehicle’s headlights to try to get the other vehicle to pull over.
When the vehicle pulled over in the 500 block of Bensley Avenue, McClendon got out of the car and began pounding on the other car’s window and pulling the door handle, yelling for the driver to get out, O’Meara said. “Mr. McClendon said: `Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car,'” O’Meara said.
But the other vehicle was being driven by the wife of the fellow officer, and the couple’s 4-year-old child also was in the car, O’Meara said. The corrections officer was in another vehicle ahead of his wife, and he also stopped.
Believing his wife was being carjacked, he got out of his vehicle and identified himself as a police officer, O’Meara said. He ordered McClendon away from the vehicle, then shot him multiple times, O’Meara said. McClendon died at the scene, the police chief said.
A preliminary investigation has led police to believe McClendon was trying to play a joke on his friend, O’Meara said. The officer may not have been able to see McClendon because of the lights from the vehicle he had been in and didn’t realize who McClendon was until after he fired, he said.
“It appears it was a prank gone wrong,” O’Meara said. “It is believed it is a tragic misidentification and that the offender or shooter in this case believed Mr. McClendon was going to carjack his wife and small child.”
Police have not filed any charges against the correctional officer, whose name has not been released. O’Meara did not rule out the possibility that charges would be brought later, saying an investigation by the Illinois State Police is ongoing.
Both McClendon and the slain corrections officer had been with the Department of Corrections since 1992, said Cook County Jail spokesman Bill Cunningham. The officer has been de-deputized pending the result of both the criminal investigation and an internal investigation by the sheriff’s office, Cunningham said.
Departmental policy allows corrections officers to carry their guns while off-duty, Cunningham said. Officers are trained to take action if they believe their life or the life of another is in danger, Cunningham said. McClendon also had his gun, but it is not believed he had it out when he approached the other car, O’Meara said.
McClendon worked in the department’s transportation division and was responsible for taking inmates to court appearances, Cunningham said.
Larry Lawrence, president of the condo association where McClendon lived in the 1600 block of Astor Street in Calumet City, said the officer had lived there about a year and a half and had a young son and a fiance.
The unidentified officer guards inmates in Division 5 of the jail, where medium security inmates are housed, Cunningham said.
The officer and his wife were heading home from a bowling alley, O’Meara said.
O’Meara would not comment about whether alcohol was involved or if blood-alcohol tests were conducted at the scene.
