KIRKLAND – Four Kirkland police officers have been praised by the Chicago Police Department for their work in helping to capture suspects in the shooting death of an NBA star’s cousin.

Part-time officers Robert Haynes, 41, and Jonathan Hedges, 31, along with auxiliary officers Nicholas Buroff, 26, and Thomas Konieczny, 26, all moonlight with Lemont-based Protech Security Group Inc. and work security at the Parkway Gardens housing community on the South Side of Chicago.

On Aug. 26, the four officers were working at the housing complex, known for its rampant crime and high poverty, when 32-year-old Nykea Aldridge was fatally struck in the head and arm by bullets while she was pushing her 4-week-old daughter in a stroller. She was walking through the half-mile-long complex and had just come from a nearby public school where she registered her other three children for school. She had moved there less than a year before.

Aldridge was not the intended target, police have said.

“These officers were instrumental in the apprehension of one of the offenders. Their quick action and attention to details was vital in identifying and apprehending the first offender,” Chicago police Sgt. Michael Kelly wrote in an email to Kirkland Police Chief Paul Lindstrom.

Kelly, who works in Chicago police’s Area 1 detective division, supervised the case, according to the email.

News spread quickly that Aldridge was Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade’s cousin.

The Kirkland police officers and another security guard on duty with them saw a man on Parkway Gardens surveillance cameras who was thought to be involved in the shooting.

“We identified him from the security footage,” Haynes said. “He was basically hanging out in the courtyard like nothing ever happened. We went and apprehended him.”

The other security guard, Cortez Fort, who is not a police officer, had detained the man who is believed to be the gunmen’s intended target. Hedges said Fort’s work was as crucial to the case as what he and his police colleagues did.

The four officers collectively agreed that they didn’t treat the shooting incident any differently than they would any other. In fact, they said, they weren’t aware of who the victim was or who she was related to until after the suspect had been arrested.

“Just because it’s such a high-profile case doesn’t make it any more important that any other murder,” Hedges said.

Still, within three hours of the shooting, Darwin Sorrells was arrested on the Parkway Gardens premises. He implicated his brother, Darren, who was arrested the next morning, and Chicago police on Aug. 28 announced first-degree murder and attempted first-degree charges against the pair.

The suspects did not live in the housing complex, according to police.

“If it were not for their [the Kirkland police officers] actions, this case might not have come to successful resolution as fast as it did,” Kelly said in the email to Lindstrom.

The Kirkland Police Department won’t be formally commending the four officers because the incident didn’t happen in town, Kirkland Mayor Les Bellah said.

But the mayor said he is proud, nonetheless, of the policemen’s work – even if it was performed in another jurisdiction. Bellah said in the current climate where police officers are often vilified by the public, and so-called bad cops’ actions are quick to make headlines, its sobering to have good cops’ actions – and Kirkland ones, to boot – be recognized.

“They’re happy that the Chicago Police Department recognized them. I’m happy that they recognized them as well. … They are representatives of not only the village of Kirkland, but of Small Town, USA, in getting something done and not being afraid to do their jobs,” Bellah said. “Just so they know, they’re respected by my office and this police department for what they did.”

“Good cops rarely get recognition for what they do. … People recognize the bad stuff because this world is stuck on what happened today that was bad,” Bellah said.

Chicago Police Department officials said the officers will be recognized there, but no date or further details have been disclosed.

The Kirkland Police Department includes three full-time police officers, 13 who work part time and nine nonsworn auxiliary officers. The officers don’t usually live in town and a number of them have other jobs.

Hedges not only works for Kirkland’s force and Protech, he also is a Rockford police officer. He’s been an officer for nine years but just started working for Kirkland police in April. He and Haynes, who’ve worked together as security officers in Rockford housing communities, carpool with each other to travel the more than 70 miles to work in Chicago.

Being auxiliary personnel, Buroff and Konieczny are volunteers and help the department with special events and other activities, the mayor said.

Buroff has worked for Protech for five years, he said, and has been assigned to Parkway Gardens for two years.

Bellah said he has heard complaints about Kirkland’s police officers having other jobs. But, he said, he has no qualms about it.