McKinley Park block dedicated as Joseph P. Ferguson Way for fallen Chicago Police officer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A South Side street was renamed Saturday in honor of a Chicago Police officer who gave his life in service of the city.
Dozens of people gathered in the McKinley Park neighborhood to watch Paulina Street at West 32nd Place was dedicated to Officer Joseph P. Ferguson.
Ferguson was killed in a shootout on Dec. 27, 1968. He was 25 years old and had been with the Chicago Police Department for three and a half years at the time.
The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation recalled at 3:50 p.m. that day, Ferguson and his partner Patrolman Daniel Cambric, were walking their beat in the 2nd District when they stopped three men – Ralph Bellamy, Calvin Hayden, and Allen Sanders - at 3834 S. Indiana Ave. to question them. One of the men was known to be on parole, another a narcotics user, the foundation said.
The officers searched the three men and released Bellamy while continuing to search the other two. They found a .32-caliber rifle in Sanders' coat pocket, and arrested him, the foundation recalled.
Soon afterward, Bellamy rushed back to the scene with a gun he'd gotten nearby, and told Sanders to "get their guns," the foundation recalled. Officers Ferguson and Cambric were disarmed by Sanders and forced into their squad car with the perpetrators, the foundation recalled.
Officer Cambric drew a concealed backup weapon and a gun battle began in which six shots were fired, the foundation recalled. Ferguson was shot four times in the face, neck, left arm, and abdomen and died at Michael Reese Hospital, the foundation recalled.
Cambric suffered minor shrapnel wounds.
The three gunmen fled, the foundation recalled Sanders was arrested two days later and charged with first-degree murder, Hayden was found beaten to death three weeks later, and Bellamy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in February 1970.
Bellamy was later convicted sentenced to 199 years in prison, while Sanders was sentenced to 70 to 100 years for the murder of Officer Ferguson and a consecutive 15 to 30 years for the wounding Officer Cambric, the foundation recalled. Bellamy later died in prison.
At end of the street renaming ceremony Saturday, Officer Ferguson's daughter, Elizabeth – who was just three years old at the time of his death – was given a street sign to honor her father's sacrifice.
