Editor's note: A live stream of Cmdr. Paul Bauer's funeral will be available right here on NBCChicago.com beginning at 9:45 a.m. Saturday.
Friday marked the beginning of services in which the city of Chicago will pay its respects to Cmdr. Paul Bauer.
Bauer's friends and loved ones will begin the process of saying goodbye this afternoon during a wake at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in the Bridgeport neighborhood.
Nativity of Our Lord is where Bauer and is his family attended church - and hundreds, if not thousands, were expected to attend the wake from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
"He's looking down from his rightful place in heaven and he's gonna be shocked at the number of people," said Fr. Dan Brandt, Chicago police chaplain and former pastor of the Nativity parish.
"He's gonna say, 'What are all these people doing at my funeral? Because I don't think he realized, in his humility, just the impact that he's made on countless lives," Brandt continued.
Brandt remembered Bauer coming to daily mass before work, knowing him as a dedicated husband and father who made an impression on everyone he met.
"Man of integrity, incredible integrity," Brandt recalled. "Humility, honesty, faith. But he also had a terrific sense of humor." [[474076193, C]]
Brandt said it's those qualities that will be so greatly missed in the tight-knit community, whose members have been doing what they can to prepare for the services - tying blue ribbons around trees all across the Southwest Side - and stepping in to care for Bauer's family.
Bauer's funeral will take also take place at Nativity of Our Lord on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
Following the services, Chicagoans can pay their respects as the funeral procession moves through the city to Bauer's final resting place.
Local
The procession will depart the church and move through the Bridgeport neighborhood to Holy Sepulchre cemetery in Alsip.
The procession route begins west from the church in the 600 block of West 37th Street, then heads south on Halsted, east on Pershing to I-90/94E, then to I-57 south to 111th Street to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on 111th in Alsip.
Traffic control aides will be deployed along the route, and it is expected to arrive at the cemetery just before 1 p.m. Parking was restricted in the blocks around Nativity through 4 p.m. Saturday in preparation for the services.
Cmdr. Bauer was shot to death while assisting a tactical team in “apprehending a suspicious person” at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago on Tuesday afternoon.
