Suspect arrested in fatal shooting of Chicago Officer Luis Huesca

CHICAGO — The suspect wanted in connection with last month’s fatal shooting of off-duty Chicago police Officer Luis Huesca was taken into custody in the west suburbs late Wednesday, according to CPD.

A Cook County judge last week issued an arrest warrant charging Xavier Tate, 22, with murder in the April 21 killing of Huesca, 30, near Huesca’s home in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

In a statement released Wednesday night, police said Tate was taken into custody in Glendale Heights by CPD officers and members of the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.

A CPD source familiar with the investigation told the Tribune that officers took Tate into custody using the handcuffs that belonged to Huesca. Authorities previously announced a combined $100,000 reward for public information leading to Tate’s arrest and conviction.

A CPD spokesperson said it was unlikely that Tate would appear in court Thursday.

Cook County court records show Tate was arrested last March in south suburban Olympia Fields and charged with criminal trespass to a residence. That case remains pending.Court records from Kane County, meanwhile, show Tate was arrested in February and charged with obstructing a police officer.

He was also arrested in 2023 and charged with obstruction, and both those cases remain active, records show. In the last five years, Tate has been cited 10 times for alleged traffic violations in Kane County.

Huesca, a six-year veteran of CPD, was shot multiple times in the 3100 block of West 56th Street while off-duty but in uniform early on April 21. His gun and vehicle were also taken at the scene of the shooting but were later recovered.

Officers last week arrested a relative of Tate’s who allegedly had come to possess Huesca’s gun. That man, arrested in Morgan Park, now faces a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, court records show.

On what would’ve been Huesca’s 31st birthday last week, police announced it had been determined the officer died in the line of duty, a classification entitling his family to survivors’ death benefits.

At his funeral Monday, Huesca was remembered as a bright light in his personal life and on the job: “an exceptional person with courage, bravery, humility and pride.”

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