Friends, family and even strangers helped the family of a wounded Park Forest officer critically wounded in a shooting while investigating a break-in in the southern suburb.
A Culver's restaurant in Matteson teamed up with several local police departments to host a "Night of Giving" to raise money for Officer Tim Jones.
"He's one of the policemen in our town and we'll do everything we can and hope he gets better and comes back," one customer said.
The restaurant is giving a portion of sales from the event, which continued until 8 p.m., to help officer Jones. Shirts were also being sold to benefit him.
"We actually have a lot of team members who knows officer Jones personally by ging to school with him so it was very important for us to give back to the community any way we could," Culver's manager Corty Latham said.
Jones was shot March 19 around 5:40 a.m. in the 300 block of Neola St, investigating a break-in and a stolen vehicle, according to police.
Officers discovered there was a person inside the vacant residence and a perimeter was set up around the building, said Officer Christopher Mannino, Deputy Chief of Police for the Park Forest Police Department. The suspect tried to leave the house through a window and as officers attempted to detain him, he produced a handgun and began firing, police say.
Jones was shot in the head and remains in a medically-induced coma at Christ Hospital.
"He's making small steps every day and it's going to be a long, hard battle," said Deputy Chief Paul Winfrey. "He's shown in the last 12 days what he can do and he's continuing to improve."
Jones had been with the department for about a year, and he comes from a law enforcement family: his father is the police chief for Country Club Hills.
A GoFundMe has been started for Jones.
