The family of a Chicago police officer, who was found dead inside his home on the city's South Side earlier this week, are speaking publicly for the first time about his death.
Family believes 46-year-old Titus Moore died from COVID-19 and told NBC 5 News he had been on medical leave from the department.
Angelica Green and her uncle never imagined they would spend Thanksgiving planning a funeral for her cousin.
“I just didn’t think this would take him because he’s so strong. He’s our protector,” cried Green.
Moore followed in his dad’s footsteps to become a Chicago police officer.
“He loved being a police officer that was his life,” his father Theopsy Moore said. “Being a police officer was his life.”
He served in the 5th (Calumet) District on the city's South Side, and had been with the department for 14 years. Moore was a training officer and even had a second job doing security.
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“He loved the Chicago Police Department and he was willing to put himself out here, at risk everyday even though this virus was out here that didn’t stop him,” said Green.
Green said her cousin was always just a phone call away.
“Whenever there’s something we just always call him he’s glad to come,” she said. “He’s quiet and he don’t seem like it because people don’t really understand him because he’s quiet. He’s really sweet. He’s just loving and he loved to be like my uncle. If I say something like, oh you act like your daddy—he’ll be cracking up laughing because he loved when I say that.”
According to family, Moore tested positive for coronavirus more than two weeks ago and had been on medical leave from CPD.
“He just said the first couple of days he felt like he had the flu,” said Green.
Even still, Green said her cousin was on the road to recovery.
“He was feeling well enough,” she said. “He was just ready to get back to work.”
The two would talk or text every day. But Green became worried when she couldn’t get a hold of him on Sunday to ask about Thanksgiving. She even thought about calling police to do a well being check on Monday.
“I was like he’s going to get mad if I send somebody while he’s sleeping so the next day I’m going to go out there,” she cried.
Officers conducted a well being check Tuesday morning and found Moore collapsed on the floor of his home near 94th and Wabash.
“I had two sons,” cried Moore’s dad. “He was the last one.”
The family is still waiting on the Cook County Medical Examiner to determine the exact cause of his death, but on this somber Thanksgiving holiday, they hope others will honor Moore by taking the virus seriously.
“We never thought it would come in our house we did everything,” she said. “We never thought it would ever affect us we never thought we would not have him.”
There have been more than 1,400 hundred confirmed cases of COVID within the Chicago Police Department, according to officials. So far three officers have died from the virus—their deaths considered a line of duty death.
The department told NBC 5 they are still waiting on autopsy results to make that determination for Officer Moore.
