Detective Allan Reddins was a rising star in the Oak Park Police Department.
The man who close friends called Bear had become a detective after only three years as a patrol officer and was a highly respected and popular member of the department.
But his life was tragically cut short the day after Thanksgiving while on a patrol shift because of staff shortages. Reddins was shot and killed after he confronted a man with a gun on Lake Street in downtown Oak Park. A Chicago man, Jerrell Thomas, who was wounded in the encounter, is charged with first degree murder in the killing of Reddins.
Former Oak Park police Sgt. Traccye Love supervised Reddins when he was a patrol officer.
“He was really just an incredible officer,” said Love who now works for the Kenilworth Police Department. “He was confident but also very humble so he didn’t go into a space like ‘I am the authority here and you do what I say.’ He actually treated people like human beings, and he spoke to people on their level. He was very calm so he was able to de-escalate a situation.
“He was one of the officers where supervisors would say ‘oh Reddins is going, then we’re good.’”
Love recalls a time when Reddins was responding to an attempted carjacking in the parking lot of the Oak Park Arms. Operating on a hunch, Reddins went to the Green Line Station on Oak Park Avenue and found the suspect. Reddins talked to him and then when the suspect reached into his pocket Reddins patted him down, found a gun and arrested him.
“He kind of had a sixth sense about things that were suspicious,” Love said. “He was just really great.”
Reddins also had a flair for even the mundane task of writing police reports.
“He wrote amazing paper, like, his reports were very good,” Love said. “I even said to him one time that I was just reading his reports at this point for entertainment because he always used, like, these crazy, weird words that he was able to incorporate it into the report.”
Reddins, 40, didn’t become a police officer until he was past the age of 30, after receiving degrees in criminal justice from Triton College and Loyola University. But he had long thought about becoming a police officer and was a natural fit for the job.
“Allan was wise beyond his years,” said Oak Park police Chief Shatonya Johnson told those at Reddins funeral last week at the Apostolic Church of God on the south side of Chicago. “No one would have known he had just shy of eight years in this profession. His commitment to serving is unparalleled. His dedication to the department and to the Oak Park community was undeniable. He was a natural leader, a rising star in our police department.”
Not only was he a detective, Reddins served as department instructor participating in training, served on a committee that overhauled police procedures and policies and often served as an informal coach and sounding board for colleagues.
“He assisted some of his coworkers with their cases,” Johnson said this week, and took under his wing a young man who had been injured in an attack.
“He was a mentor to the youth in the community,” Johnson said at the funeral.
Reddins treated everyone with respect.
“He didn’t wear the badge as a symbol of authority,” Johnson said. “He wore it as a badge of honor with integrity, courage and bravery.”
And, while private by nature, he was a good friend who liked to go out for lunch and dinner with his fellow officers.
“Although he was quiet he was a very good listener,” Love said. “I’ve had officers tell me that they would speak to him about their relationship issues and even good news.”
He had a distinctive, uproarious, laugh.
“He was very quiet but if he thought something was funny he just laughed so hard,” Love said.
Colleagues said Reddins was very close to and proud of his son, Jayden Reddins, 19, a student at Morehouse College who is studying to be a doctor.
The detective’s closest friend on the Oak Park Police Department was Cmdr. Schonella Stewart, whom he had known long before joining the Oak Park Police Department.
“Allan was not only an incredible colleague but a dear friend,” Stewart said at the funeral. “Allan embodied love, honor, loyalty, and integrity and he shared those qualities freely with everyone around him.”
At the funeral Stewart had some final words to her dear friend.
“You were truly one of the best among us, you were sharp, fun, spirited, and a true pride of the community you loved so much,” Stewart said.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
