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Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara is lifting the curtain on the backstage maneuvers culminating in Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker being told to stay away from the funeral of slain Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca. The back-and-forth, which only intensified the grieving family's anguish, did not start and end with Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza delivering the stay-away message directly to the mayor Sunday night. Catanzara said it started April 24, when "somebody close to the family" called him to say the Huescas "did not want certain people at his services." The family reaffirmed that message in meetings with Catanzara on Friday and Saturday. Catanzara said he delivered the message to FOP lobbyist Dave Sullivan. Pritzker immediately agreed to honor the family's wishes. The mayor's office "initially agreed," only to start "pushing back" the following day, Catanzara said, so he called Sullivan again, with the slain officer's sister, Lily O'Brien, on the line. "The final sentence that Lily told my lobbyist was, 'If he [Johnson] shows up there, I will make a scene and throw him out myself,' " Catanzara recalled. Catanzara "thought everything was squared away" until midday Sunday, when the Huesca family, gathered for the wake, texted a question: "Is the mayor really coming?" He rushed to the funeral home, where Chicago Police Department personnel told him they had talked to the family, and "they understand that the mayor is mandatory to be here," Catanzara said. "I said, 'You're lying to the family. There is nothing mandatory about the mayor's attendance, and shame on you for even trying to tell the family that this is the only option they have.'" A flurry of conversations ensued, one including Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling on speakerphone with other police brass, one of whom told Huesca's mother, in Spanish, it was "mandatory that the mayor had to show up." " At one point, there was an implication that the honors funeral is tied to the mayor's attendance. That was the guilt trip that we're laying on this family," Catanzara said. Mendoza and state Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, D-Chicago, were with the family at the wake. Huesca's mother told them "They didn't want the mayor to attend because they don't think he supports the police," said Abdon Pallasch, Mendoza's spokesperson. Huesca's mother asked Mendoza and Guerrero-Cuellar to call the mayor directly. Johnson again made no commitment to honor the family's wishes, and his advance team showed up at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel Monday, hours before the funeral. Johnson's public schedule for Monday, released later Sunday, included the funeral. An updated schedule released at 8:51 a.m. Monday said he would not attend. The mayor's office and police department refused to comment on Catanzara's version of events. At lunch after the funeral, Catanzara said, he asked the Huescas if they wanted him to go public with the behind-the-scenes saga. He said they did. "Our family feels so frustrated and furious that our brother is not here," Lily O'Brien said in a video posted by the FOP before the funeral. "He had somebody else that murdered him [who] is running around, and he's still free. The anger that we feel with how violent that Chicago has turned. How this is now the status quo. How this is normalized. This week, it's my brother. Next week, it's your brother or somebody else's son or somebody else's mother." Xavier L. Tate Jr. was taken into custody without incident shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday after a "multistate investigation" that involved the Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. Huesca was attacked early April 21 in the 3100 block of West 56th Street, not far from where he lived in Gage Park. By Sun-Times staff
John Catanzara, police union president, discussed the maneuvering with the Sun-Times. When the mayor's office began "pushing back" against staying away, Catanzara said, the slain officer's sister told him if the mayor showed up, she would "make a scene and throw him out myself." By Fran Spielman
Caschaus Tate, 20, stopped investigators at the door of a home in Morgan Park, then went out the back and tossed a gun over a fence, police said. Family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers filled St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel for the funeral. "This day is for Officer Luis Huesca," said Police Supt. Larry Snelling. "This is his day, nothing else." By Sophie Sherry
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, whose brother is a Chicago police officer, spoke with the mother and sister of Officer Luis Huesca at Sunday's wake and passed their wishes along to the mayor's office that night. The line of mourners who paid their respects to the slain officer stretched around Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. A combined reward of $100,000 is offered for the arrest of his attacker. Xavier L. Tate Jr., 22, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Huesca in the 3100 block of West 56th Street, court records show. By Tom Schuba
Funeral services for Huesca will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Rita of Cascia Catholic Church at 7740 S. Western Ave. in Chicago, according to the Fraternal Order of Police. By Tom Schuba
Huesca, killed on his way home to Gage Park, was a "great officer, great human being" as police Supt. Larry Snelling put it. A community alert asks for help in identifying the male "subject," noting that he "should be considered armed and dangerous." Meanwhile, those who knew Huesca have been left reeling. Rocio Lasso said she leaned on Huesca after her own son, Andres Vásquez Lasso, was killed in the line of duty last year. Officer Luis Huesca, 30, was going home from work about 3 a.m. in the 3100 block of West 56th Street when a ShotSpotter alert went off, police Supt. Larry Snelling said. No one has been arrested.