Photo: Chicago police Sgt. Jason Kaczynski, right, and Officer Kimberly Thorp were among 70 officers honored at the 50th annual Police Department recognition ceremony Friday. Chicago police Sgt. Jason Kaczynski and Officer Kimberly Thorp were on desk duty, both recovering from medical issues, when the sound of gunfire ripped through the police facility on 61st Street last July.
Thorp was outside first. She spotted another officer taking cover behind a squad car, then she took aim at the gun-wielding man advancing toward her amid a spray of bullets.
Close behind, with weapon drawn, Kaczynski fired several shots as he passed through the station's open door, striking the gunman in the chest.
What the two officers did not realize immediately was that Officer Thor Soderberg had been mortally wounded in the parking lot moments earlier. The man they encountered outside the facility was Bryant Brewer, who was charged with Soderberg's murder and is awaiting trial.
The two officers were among 70 honored Friday at the Chicago Police Department's 50th annual police recognition ceremony at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Kaczynski, 39, and Thorp, 36, will also travel to Washington next week to accept the National Top Cop Award.
"We stopped his murderous rampage," Kaczynski said. "Everything changes when something like that happens."
At the time, Kaczynski was recovering from a blood clot, and Thorp, who had recently undergone surgery on her foot, was in a walking cast. They were accustomed to working as members of the Targeted Response Unit, and both said they had grown tired of being cooped up inside. Neither Kaczynski nor Thorp was wearing a bulletproof vest when they stepped into the line of fire.
"She looked down the mouth of the dragon," said Thorp's father, Jim, beaming at a reception before the awards ceremony presided over by interim police Superintendent Terry Hillard.
"There are those of us who have been there," added the senior Thorp, a retired Air Force major. "The people who haven't, they will never know what it's like."
The fact that the victim was a colleague only magnified the resulting trauma.
"It's comparable to losing a family member," said Kaczynski, a 15-year veteran of the department. "We are kind of like a big family."