Authorities still hunting same 3 suspects in Fox Lake cop killing

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has new information in the shooting death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz.

The 52-year-old lieutenant had been shot twice, according to sources familiar with the investigation - once in the back area of his neck and once in the bulletproof vest over his stomach.

But where he was shot is far less important than how it happened to the hundreds of investigators who have been working on this case now for eight days. Authorities are essentially back to where they were the day Lt. Gliniewicz died, looking for three very generic men.

"At this point don't have any video relevant to our investigation," said Cmdr. George Filenko, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.

With that, what was the most touted public lead has gone away; three men seen on home and business security cameras were found by police and cleared.

But northwest suburban police and federal agents said they are still hunting for two white men and a black man that Lt. Gliniewicz radioed he was pursuing just before he was shot twice and killed.

"We are continuing this investigation based on the information that was provided to us from day one, that Lt. Gliniewiecz identified three individuals that he pursued into a heavily wooded area, officers responded to back him up, and they found him murdered, or I'm sorry, killed," Cmdr. Filenko said.

Late Tuesday, Cmdr. Filenko told the I-Team he wouldn't comment on, confirm or deny the gunshot information given to the I-Team by several sources familiar with the case: that shortly after arriving on the desolate gravel road, Lt. Gliniewicz was hit twice - once in the lower stomach region covered by his bulletproof vest and once in his neck area toward the back.

"We're proceeding as if it were a homicide. Again, I'm going to go back to the original radio call," Cmdr. Filenko said.

Indeed, authorities continue to hold back much of the information they know about the case, and Lake County Detective and Task Force member Chris Covelli says that they have not ruled out any possibilities in Lt. Gliniewicz's death and all theories are still on the table.

Police say they have investigated 185 leads, and collected at least 50 DNA swabs from individuals, trying to match one unknown DNA sample found at the scene.

"We are working diligently with crime lab to try and establish an identification of that DNA," Cmdr. Filenko said.

The investigation of Lt. Gliniewicz's death proceeds even as parallel investigations that began months ago at the Fox Lake Police Department continue. Those internal investigations of possible police misconduct resulted in the chief's resignation last month and there are still many unanswered questions in that case.

The task force commander says police also have not discounted that the Lt. Gliniewicz shooting is in some way possibly connected to that internal investigation.