Jan. 22--Initially, Rosemont police Officer Richard Drehobl appeared composed as he explained how he came to shoot a man dead while off duty.
But at the first mention of his relationship to the man -- his brother-in-law, Joseph Caffarello -- Drehobl's voice started to crack.
And when he got to the moment when he fired on the man who he said was "like a brother," the officer broke down. He cried, rocked in his chair and buried his hands in his face, saying, "That was the last thing I wanted to do."
A video of Drehobl's interview with Illinois State Police about the shooting on Jan. 7, 2015, has been released in response to the Tribune's Freedom of Information request.
Since the shooting, the national spotlight on police conduct has greatly intensified, sparking protests in Chicago and elsewhere. This shooting was markedly different from those that have caused the most controversy, in that the officer was off duty, he and the person he shot were related and were both white, and no one has disputed that Caffarello posed an imminent threat to the officer and others.
Cook County prosecutors concluded there was "insufficient evidence" to charge Drehobl.
The videotaped interview with state police -- the outside agency that handled the investigation -- took place two days after the shooting. Investigators questioned Drehobl in a conference room in the presence of the officer's attorney, Terrence Lefevour, and Assistant State's Attorneys Maria McCarthy and Guy Lisuzzo.
Drehobl described how he had graduated from Cook County Police Academy with about three months of training that included firearms qualification and scenarios in which he had to decide whether to fire his weapon. The son of a former Rosemont police chief also named Richard Drehobl, he'd been a patrolman with Rosemont for about four years.
It was Drehobl's father who called him that morning, asking him to go to Caffarello's house because another officer had seen him speeding and blowing through stop signs. Officer Jason Sheridan had tried to stop Caffarello outside his home, but he became belligerent and went inside.
When Drehobl arrived with a close friend of Caffarello's, fellow police Officer Eric Herrera, Caffarello's wife Deanna, who is Drehobl's sister, ran out yelling to her brother, "Take this!" and handed him Caffarello's .45-caliber handgun, which he said he put in the glove box of his car.
Drehobl and Herrera went inside to try to calm Caffarello, but he was a large man and he shoved them and squeezed Drehobl's neck before he broke free, the officer said.
Herrera left, and Caffarello went upstairs, screaming, "Where's my gun?" Drehobl said he knew Caffarello owned another handgun. Feeling "petrified," Drehobl said, he told his sister, who was then pregnant, to leave with him and the couple's 2-year-old son, Joey.
The three left in Drehobl's car, but Caffarello followed in his own car, drove around the block and struck them head-on at about 19 mph, causing an air bag in Drehobl's Acura to deploy, according to an accident reconstruction by police.
Drehobl said he got out of the car and screamed at Caffarello to stay in his. When Caffarello got out, Drehobl said, he was afraid Caffarello had a gun or would take one, and Drehobl drew a handgun from a clip he carries on his hip when off duty. Caffarello walked toward Drehobl, despite the officer screaming at him to stop.
"He told me he was going to kill me," Drehobl said, crying and pausing to compose himself. "He continued to come aggressively toward me. That's when I had no other choice, because I was in fear for my life, (but) to pull the trigger, and I shot him. ... He stopped in his tracks, and then he collapsed to the ground."
A Rosemont building inspector and former Rosemont fire chief who happened to pass by saw the shooting corroborated Drehobl's account, according to police records.
"I had to do what I had to do ... because I was scared for my sister and nephew," Drehobl said. "I didn't want him to kill anybody. I just love my sister and my nephew with all my heart. I love Joe too, but I didn't know what was wrong."
Drehobl said Caffarello was "like a brother" to him, but that Caffarello had lost his job with the Illinois Tollway a couple of years before after being caught sleeping on the job and other alleged misdeeds.
Deanna Caffarello met her future husband in grade school but told police that Caffarello had "never been the same" since getting injured on the job and self-medicating with prescription narcotics, records show. He had threatened her but never hurt her, she said.
Neither Drehobl nor Deanna Caffarello could be reached for comment. Since the shooting, Rosemont officials said, Deanna Caffarello gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
Rosemont village spokesman Gary Mack said there were no disciplinary actions or changes in policy made in response to the incident.
rmccoppin@tribpub.com
