ABC7 has learned that troubling accusations were made against that officer made in the hours before his death.
Sources say the officer was being investigated for a rape during his off hours. His teenage accuser was told to come Wednesday to the Chicago Police Department's 5th District Station, 727 E. 111th St., to point out her attacker in a police line-up. Then came word of the officer's suicide.
There was a lights-and-siren police escort for the ambulance carrying the body of Edgar Neal, a 26-year police veteran who appears to have taken his own life.
Friends remember Neal one way:
"He came to my rescue, and we've been friends ever since," said Lashereia Scales.
A different woman remembers him an entirely different way:
"She told me that my daughter had been raped by a police officer." This woman, who is not being named to protect her daughter's identity, says her 17-year-old daughter was at a drinking party with friends over the weekend when she says a school friend brought her back to a man's house.
"She was pushing him away and he just kept with it, kept going," said the mother.
Chicago police say a rape was reported on the officer's block this weekend. A spokesman, citing department policy, would not confirm the suspect's name.
The teen's family says she was told to show up for a line-up to identify her attacker on Wednesday. Then they learned Officer Neal took his own life and the line-up was canceled.
Now, the 17-year-old girl, who says she was his victim, is feeling victimized all over again.
"She's saying she feels responsible for that, and I was telling my baby, 'Don't feel responsible for that. He was a coward,' " said the mother. "He was scared that it was coming down and he was fitting to be arrested," said the mother.
Police continue to investigate the rape allegations.
The mother and daughter were scheduled to meet with police investigators Wednesday evening.