Inmate questioned in 2010 slaying of Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey

A 24-year-old prison inmate is being questioned in the 2010 slaying of Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey, sources told the Tribune tonight.

The man was sent to prison Downstate after his arrest last September on vehicular hijacking and weapons charges. At that time, he had been on parole following a 2009 conviction for aggravated battery to a peace officer and a drug conviction.
 
The man has not been charged in the officer's killing, and no one is officially calling him a suspect.

Bailey, 62, was shot early on the morning of July 18 last year while cleaning his new Buick -- a retirement gift to himself -– outside his home in the 7400 block of South Evans Avenue in the South Side's Park Manor neighborhood, police said.

He was still in his uniform after spending his overnight shift guarding the home of then-Mayor Richard Daley when someone approached and tried to steal Bailey's Buick or rob him. There was an exchange of gunfire between Bailey and his killer before the officer was shot, police have said. Bailey was pronounced dead later that morning at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

A 20-year police department veteran, Bailey worked for the Central Police District. When he died, Bailey was about a month away from turning 63, the mandatory retirement age for Chicago police officers.

jgorner@tribune.com

asweeney@tribune.com