Page 43 - May2021

A 7-year-old boy’s wish to be a Chicago Police Officerf comes true
When Chicago Police Officer Ralph Cruz heard from the Make- A-Wish Foundation of Illinois about a 7-year-old boy’s wish to ap- prehend a luxury-car thief, he gathered the whole village together to make the child’s wish come true.
Seven-year-old Ibrahim, who has a life-threatening cardiac condition, admires the SWAT team and loves luxury cars. So the mission was to make him a SWAT operator and put him in a situ- ation to catch a car thief.
Historically, the detail unit has been assigned to grant wishes for the children from Make-A-Wish. Cruz, a lieutenant in the de- tail unit who is a former SWAT officer and has been on the job for more than 20 years, coordinated the event for Ibrahim.
“I’ve been exposed to some really good people,” Cruz men- tioned. “So I decided I was going to round them up to execute different portions of the event.”
Cruz assembled a team of officers he believed could help make the event as realistic and seamless as possible, including Sean Carroll, Greg Sloyan, Thomas Lam and Brian Berkowitz. They de- tailed logistics for the car theft scenario while keeping in mind that the event would be for a child.
“He’s 7 years old, so it couldn’t just be the practical stuff with the SWAT team,” Cruz explained. “We called it tactical tender- ness, where we were going to bring the event to the understand- ing of a 7-year-old but still have the coolness of SWAT.”
The team brought their ideas into action on April 18. Police motors went to Ibrahim’s house to escort his family to the SWAT unit.
After being introduced to the team of officers, Ibrahim was able to change into a new recruit uniform, which officers receive at the academy.
Ibrahim went on a walk-through of special operations, includ- ing the K-9s and equipment. He headed upstairs to the SWAT team and was taught how to put handcuffs on people and how to apply tactical medicine, like tourniquets.
“The training was specific to the scenario we designed,” Cruz remarked. “When we mapped out the wish, we made it so that he was going to apply a tourniquet to save a life and cuff someone for the stolen vehicle.”
Ibrahim passed his recruit training and was sworn in as a pro- bationary SWAT officer. As a rite of passage, he changed out of his recruit uniform and into the SWAT uniform.
Then it was time for roll call. Ibrahim was told that Chicago had been hit with a rash of luxury-vehicle thefts, 13 to be exact, and that they knew who the offender was. The intelligence provided was that the offender would steal a white Lamborghini next, be- fore fleeing the country.
Just then, a SWAT officer barged in to announce that there was an important mission to accomplish, asking if there was anyone who could help.
“Of course, everyone screamed, ‘Ibrahim!’” Cruz relayed.
Ibrahim and his colleagues-for-a-day rode in a Bearcat, pa- trolling the streets to catch the offender. Suddenly, they were dis- patched to a call about a stolen white Lamborghini and a person down.
Ibrahim responded to the call, found the injured person and
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT GRAPHIC ARTS
applied the tourniquet to save his life, as he was trained to do. He received a call that the white Lamborghini had been spotted and got a live feed from a helicopter above. Once the stolen car was in sight, they did a car chase right off Lake Michigan, up to
a terrace.
Waiting at the terrace were Ibrahim’s family, Chicago police
officers and several news outlets. They were able to watch the 7-year-old place the offender in custody next to the 14 stolen lux- ury cars, provided by the Crown Rally Car Club.
“He became a SWAT officer, apprehended the offender and cleared the pattern,” Cruz declared. “It was an amazing experi- ence.”
Commander Darrel Spencer honored Ibrahim with an award for clearing the pattern and Superintendent David Brown gave him an honorary SWAT operator award. Chicago Fire Depart- ment District Chief Jamar Sullivan also presented him with a Life Saving award.
After the awards ceremony, Ibrahim’s family was met by the Marine Unit, which was ready to give them a private boat ride.
“We wanted to give him everything he dreamed of,” Cruz not- ed. “And he was just so happy. The smile on his face throughout the day — wow.”
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