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Honoring Our Heroes
Ella-vated
Ella French’s passion and empathy raised up the Department, the community and the City
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
n PHOTOS BY H. RICK BAMMAN, FRANK J. ALATORRE AND ERIC DAVIS
A call came in for the Community Safety Team about a group of people with guns. Rifles, actually. This is what Ella French had signed up for. She joined the foot pursuit that led to detaining the perpetrators.
But then Ella became more than just the arresting officer. She turned into a confidant for the offenders, supplying them with some dignity and respect, using empathy and experience beyond her years to forge a peaceful conclusion to the incident. This was Officer Ella French at her best.
Praise for Officer Ella French, analogies attempting to put into perspective the magnificent way she went about her job and su- perlatives describing her astounding humanity will permeate the Department and the City for decades. Drawing comparisons to the best of the best from all walks of life and beyond will not be unwarranted.
Lodge 7 President John Catanzara suggested that it might be clichéd to call Ella the future of the Department. Indeed, it might be an understatement. Spending a few minutes talking to the many who were mesmerized by her personality and profession- alism or seeing the profound number of people she touched in three short years on the job leads to a higher-caliber admiration that Chicago Police Officers reserve for their finest.
Ella French was fast on her way to becoming the real police when she was gunned down on Aug. 7 after stopping a car with an expired license plate. So much evidence suggests she already had. Even in three short years with the Department, Ella had es- tablished herself as everything elected officials, protesters, over- sighters, bosses, news media and sisters and brothers could ever want in a Chicago Police Officer.
“When she came to work, she meant it,” declared Officer Carlos Nunez, who worked with Ella on the CST. “She was a real police.” Another CST member, Officer Mark Anthony Gonzalez, added,
Chicago Police Officers stand with Elizabeth French at Ella’s casket before exiting the St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel.
“She wanted to get the guns off the street and she was a leader. Everybody gravitated to her. She was fearless and she inspired me to not sit back, to do a better job.”
The hero accolade is, of course, accorded to anybody who makes the ultimate sacrifice. But Ella earned that distinction ap- proximately a month before she was lost.
On July 1, 1-month-old Terriana Smith was wounded in a mass shooting in Englewood. Ella rushed the baby, along with her mother, to Comer Children’s Hospital and escorted her into the ER, where she received life-saving treatment.
Ella elevated all the clichés to true statements. Her team mem-
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