False Crest Hill Police Shooting Story Revealed, Sgt. Back On Job

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As for Fenoglio, he returned to active duty with Crest Hill’s Police Department in July, the chief noted. The internal affairs investigation into the deadly shooting did not result in any punishment levied against Fenoglio. In addition, an unrelated domestic battery arrest of Fenoglio last September by Yorkville police resulted in two charges being dropped, Clark also noted.

“That case was dismissed,” Clark said of Fenoglio’s arrest in Yorkville.

Crest Hill Sergeant Did Not Purposely Mislead Anyone: Jungles

On the night of the police shootings, Jungles encountered Crest Hill Deputy Chief Jason Opiola and Crest Hill Sgt. Dave Reavis, of the investigations unit.

“Sgt. Reavis stated that the offender, Matthew Parks, was armed with a knife,” Jungles wrote. “Sgt. Reavis stated that Officer Ryan Tetlow was injured during the encounter. Sgt. Reavis stated that he believed that the suspect stabbed the injured officer, because he was transported from the scene after losing a lot of blood. Sgt. Reavis stated that Sgt. Terry Fenoglio discharged his service weapon in defense of Officer Tetlow … four officers were transported to the hospital for either injuries sustained or preventative maintenance care pertaining to this incident.”

For the next several weeks, Crest Hill Police and the Major Crimes Task Force did not correct the false narrative they provided to Joliet and Chicago news media on the night of the shooting wrongly claiming Parks stabbed the officer, prompting Sgt. Fenoglio to use deadly force to save his fellow officer’s life. In reality, Parks had not stabbed anyone; he was fatally shot by Fenoglio and Fenoglio also shot his fellow officer, standing in the third-floor hallway.

“I do not think that Sgt. Reavis purposely misled anyone regarding those facts,” Jungles replied to Joliet Patch on Friday. “All of the original radio traffic, dispatch notes, and information that Sgt. Reavis was provided indicated that Matthew Parks was armed with a knife threatening the officers. The actual shooting incident occurred in a matter of seconds, and Officer Tetlow sustained an injury to his leg that required several tourniquets to stop the bleeding.”

On the other hand, several of the Joliet police reports compiled in the case made it evident that they were advised that the Crest Hill officer was shot, not stabbed. At 7:24 p.m. on March 14, 2022, Joliet Police Sgt. John Williams responded to St. Joe’s hospital “for a Crest Hill officer shot,” Williams’ report read. Williams “only asked Sgt. Fenoglio if he had fired his gun as he was covered in blood, appearing to be not his own. Sgt. Fenoglio advised … that he did fire his handgun.”

Joliet police officer Matthew Pesce’s report also made it clear that the Crest Hill officer was shot, not stabbed. Pesce “responded to 1412 Pioneer Road for a call that a Crest Hill officer who had been shot. (I) arrived on scene and assisted with traffic control at the intersection of Rock Run Drive and Bicentennial Avenue.”

According to Jungles, “If personnel from the Joliet Police Department had information that Officer Tetlow was shot the night of the incident, that information was not provided to the Crest Hill Police Department or to the Will/Grundy Major Crimes Task Force that evening. If it was provided, we would have put out information indicating that.”

Lawyer For Crest Hill Police Intervenes at Hospital

When Jungles arrived at St. Joe’s hospital, he and two other task force members learned Officer Tetlow was in critical condition, and would be undergoing surgery. Then, they met with attorney John Gaw, a Bolingbrook lawyer for the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, which represents Crest Hill’s police union.

“Attorney Gaw stated that none of the officers involved in the incident would be making statements that evening pertaining to the investigation,” Jungles’ report indicated.

At the hospital, Gaw provided Jungles with the names of four Crest Hill officers who went to St. Joe’s hospital: Fenoglio, along with Tetlow, Henry Tough and Esmeralda Sandoval.

“Sgt. Fenoglio would not be making any statements pertaining to the OIS (Officer Involved Shooting) incident,” Gaw informed Jungles, according to Jungles’ written report.

Still, Jungles met briefly with Fenoglio at the emergency room.

Even though Fenoglio had not suffered any injuries during the shooting, “Sgt. Fenogilo was dressed in a hospital gown sitting on a bed in the room,” police reports outlined.

Jungles told the sergeant why he and other task force members were at the hospital, and “Sgt. Fenoglio was alert and said that he understood. Sgt. Fenoglio did ask … if I knew the condition of Officer Ryan Tetlow. (Jungles) advised Sgt. Fenoglio that Officer Tetlow’s status was unknown to me. The conversation with Sgt. Fenoglio was ended at that time.”

Officer Throws Dead Suspect’s Knife Down Stairwell

According to his report, as Crest Hill Officer Anthony Smith responded to the domestic violence call involving Parks, “he heard several gunshots emanating from inside of the building. Sgt. Fenoglio broadcast via radio, ‘Shots Fired, Officer Down,'” Smith’s report showed.

Smith ran back to his squad car, retrieved his medical aid kit and when he reached the third floor of the building, Parks was lying on the ground between the doorway and the stairwell.

Smith stated he saw a large kitchen knife laying on Parks’ body near his right armpit.

Smith “quickly removed the knife and threw it down to the second floor landing,” his police report detailed. As Fenoglio began providing medical care to Officer Tetlow, Smith stated he handcuffed Parks, who “was not breathing and showing no signs of life.”

Smith noted that before leaving the scene, he checked Parks once more “for signs of life, with negative results.”

Afterward, Sgt. Reavis told Smith to give Sgt. Fenoglio a ride to St. Joe’s hospital, so Smith drove Fenoglio there in Smith’s squad car.

According to the “attempted murder” police report from Officer Henry Tough, he identified Parks as the criminal suspect and Sgt. Fenoglio as “the victim.”

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At the time of the 6:48 p.m. domestic battery call, Tough noted that Parks may be armed with a knife and was talking about “suicide by cop.” In his report, Tough noted that he stood on the right side of the door holding his Taser while Fenoglio was on the left side holding his gun.

Parks kept yelling “f*** you” at them and “I could not see Parks from where I was positioned, but I did observe a kitchen knife violently slash through the air in the direction of officers,” Tough wrote in his report he filed eight days after the incident. “The knife was approximately eight inches in length and had a sharp point at the end.”

According to the officer, Parks slammed shut his apartment door and yelled to his wife, “you called them, you go talk to them.” The wife was shoved into the hallway and she told the police that their children remained inside. Parks continued to open the door, but he refused to drop the knife or come out, Tough noted.

Eventually, Tough fired his Taser as Parks’ shut the door, so Tough was not sure if the Taser worked. Tough tried firing his Taser a second time, after Parks opened the door and yelled, “so you want to f****** tase me?”

According to Tough, he then heard a lock clicking shut and fearing for the safety of the children inside “and unsure if Parks had been tased and his medical condition, Sgt. Fenoglio advised to use force to open the door. Officer Tetlow kicked the door several times and then turned around and ‘mule kicked’ it, at which point it opened.”

Patch asked Jungles whether there was any police body-camera footage from the Crest Hill officers who converged upon Matt Parks’ apartment at the time he was shot?

“No, the Crest Hill Police Department did not have any officers that were issued Body Worn Cameras at the time,” Jungles answered.

Even though Fenoglio declined to give an interview to Jungles and the task force, Officer Tough’s statement indicated that Parks was about to kill Fenoglio.

Tough stated he dropped his Taser to the ground because it had finished its cycle. He retreated down the hallway because “Parks then exited the apartment with the knife … Parks turned and charged at Sgt. Fenoglio. Parks had the knife raised and was about to come down in a slashing motion when Sgt. Fenoglio discharged his weapon.

“If Sgt. Fenoglio had not discharged his weapon,” Tough wrote in his eight-day-old police statement, “he would have been stabbed repeatedly by Parks.”

As for Tetlow, Tough heard him groan and fall down, saying “My leg, my leg.” Tough saw a lot of blood coming from Tetlow’s upper left thigh so Tough said he applied a tourniquet and other officers helped treat the wound. Lockport Township paramedics rushed Tetlow to St. Joe’s. Other ambulance crews left Parks in the hallway because he showed no signs of life.

After the death scene was turned over to Chief Clark and Sgt. Reavis, “I was then driven to the hospital by a Joliet Police Department unit for treatment. I was not injured during the incident, and was released from care,” Tough’s report stated.

Like Tough, Crest Hill Officer Esmerelda Sandoval also submitted her report of Sergeant Fenoglio’s shooting eight days later. According to her report, she heard the Taser deploy and Fenogilio and Tough “were trying to prevent the male from shutting the door. The Taser was unsuccessful and the male was able to shut and lock the door.

“Officer Tetlow was instructed to kick the door in. Once the door was kicked in, I hear Sgt. Fenoglio instructing the male to ‘Drop it. Drop it. Drop it.’ A few seconds later, I heard gunshots. As we were backing away … Officer Tetlow advised he was hurt, then fell to the ground and crawled back collapsing … Officer Tough and I applied a tourniquet to Officer Tetlow’s left leg.”

More Conflicting Information

Upon the activation of the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force, three Bolingbrook police detectives drove to Crest Hill’s Pioneer Road for “an officer involved shooting” and they met with Lockport Police Commander John Arizzi.

“Upon arrival, Commander Arizzi advised a Crest Hill police officer had been stabbed in a leg and responding officers shot the suspect,” Bolingbrook Detective Steven Furtek wrote in his report.

That same night, Bolingbrook police interviewed the Lockport Township ambulance crew sent to treat Officer Tetlow at 1412 Pioneer Road. “The officer had an injury to his left leg and they all assumed the officer had a gunshot wound … They did not know the officer’s injury was a stab wound until after the transport,” Furtek’s report erroneously stated.

Will County Sheriff’s CSI Mathew Herda was also provided wrong information on the night of the police shooting.

Herda wrote how he was briefed by Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force members and “I was advised Crest Hill officers were dispatched to a domestic incident when during the time an altercation ensued, and Crest Hill Officer Tetlow was struck in the leg with a knife causing mass bleeding. Additional responding Crest Hill Sergeant Fenoglio had discharged his firearm multiple times striking the offender, Matthew J. Parks.”

Fenoglio Should Face Charges: Attorney

Plainfield attorney John Schrock, who represents the Parks family, said one of the most troubling events in the killing of Parks is when Officer Anthony Smith grabbed the knife from Parks’ body and tossed it down the stairwell.

On the second floor stairwell, leading to the third floor, CSI Herda noted he saw “a large kitchen style knife with a black handle.”

“I’m bewildered, where it was (on the body) had evidentiary value and they destroyed that evidence,” Schrock said of Crest Hill police. “The knife is what their excuse is for shooting him. What they said was he came running out of the apartment with his knife above his head.”

Given that Fenoglio refused to be interviewed by fellow police investigating his use of deadly force and friendly fire, Patch asked Schrock to comment on Officer Tough’s claim that Parks was holding the kitchen knife over his head running directly toward Fenoglio.

“Their story seems a great exaggeration,” Schrock said. “By kicking the knife down the stairs, they destroyed evidence, basically.”

Schrock questions if Parks even had the knife in his hands when Sgt. Fenoglio opened fire and killed him, while also shooting Officer Tetlow at the same time.

“Now, nobody knows even if the knife was involved, and it ended up on his stomach. How does gravity work like that?” Schrock asked.

Schrock acknowledges that Matthew Parks was mentally disturbed on the night of the 911 call, but the Plainfield lawyer insists that killing the 30-year-old Crest Hill man was unjustified.

“It was clear, he was talking about suicide by cop, but I saw no evidence of anyone trained in dealing with suicide by a cop or trying to talk him out of it,” Schrock said of Crest Hill.

On Sept. 9, 2022, the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office of Jim Glasgow, after reviewing the task force reports — lacking of any interview statement from Sgt. Fenoglio — determined there was no basis to pursue charges against Fenoglio in connection with the death of Parks.

“It was not a good shooting,” Schrock told Joliet Patch’s editor. “I feel he should have been charged. He recklessly shot his fellow officer, and he also recklessly shot Matthew Parks.”

On Friday, Patch asked Jungles to respond to Schrock’s suggestion that Fenoglio should have been charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.

“That would be more of a question for the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office to answer, since they reviewed the case and determined that there was no basis to prosecute Sgt. Fenoglio,” Jungles replied.

Lastly, Patch asked Jungles if he had any additional comments in reference to last year’s Crest Hill police shooting of Parks — and Officer Tetlow.

“In many cases, investigations like this are complex and take time to investigate,” Jungles explained. “I know you received information contrary to the initial statements made by the task force, but we must base the investigation on what information and evidence we have at the time.

“As a matter of transparency, we try to provide the public as much information as possible in a timely manner. In this particular case, that information changed as the investigation progressed. Once the task force was able to verify the origin of the injuries through evidentiary means, a corrected version of the events was sent to the media.”

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