When a police sergeant’s vodka got watered down, he turned his home into a crime scene, cops say

Missing vodka that had been replaced with water led a suburban Chicago police sergeant to shoot his son, prosecutors say.

Raymond Leuser, 48, had called in sick to the Indian Head Park Police Department that day. But he didn’t spend all of Monday lying in bed: Later in the day, surveillance footage caught Leuser purchasing vodka, pizza and popcorn from a 7-Eleven store in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reports.

At some point, Leuser’s 22-year-old son stole three glasses of his father’s vodka, prosecutors said, and replaced what he’d taken with water, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Leuser’s son was staying in the basement of Leuser’s southwest Chicago home at the time.

Early the next morning, around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the son heard someone walking in the kitchen, prosecutors said in court on Thursday. The son climbed up the stairs from the basement and saw Leuser, his father, standing there but facing the other way, the Tribune reports.

“The defendant then turned toward the victim, and made a guttural-type of yell,” Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said in Cook County court, according to the Sun-Times. “The defendant then shot the victim in the stomach.”

The gunfire hit the 22-year-old in the arm, leg and stomach, CBS reports. The son attempted to shield his face, but was hit in the shoulders, prosecutors said. Ultimately, he tumbled down the stairs, back into the basement.

911 dispatchers had been called by Leuser — the father and suspected shooter — who said a person had been shot at the address but did not answer any further questions and hung up, the Tribune reports.

When police got to the house, Leuser surrendered with his hands up, they said, telling them: “He’s in the basement,” according to the Tribune.

Law enforcement discovered two .45 caliber guns as well as blood and shell casings at the crime scene, WGN reports.

The son is still hospitalized and will need two surgeries to remove bullets that are lodged in his body, according to WGN. As of Thursday morning, he remained in serious condition.

Leuser has worked at the Indian Head Park Police Department in the southwest Chicago suburbs for two decades, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He served the department as interim chief until May 2016, according to NBC Chicago.

Leuser is being held without bond, the Sun-Times reports, and has been ordered not to have contact with his son.

Leuser served for four years in the Marines, his attorney told the Sun-Times, including more than two years in the Middle East. His attorney suggested to the Tribune that the father and son may have been in a fight, given that Leuser had a black eye and scratches.

Prosecutors said in court that there was no sign of that kind of struggle, the Tribune reports.

Leuser is now on unpaid administrative leave, Indian Head Park Village President Tom Hinshaw told the Tribune.

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 7:11 PM with the headline "When a police sergeant’s vodka got watered down, he turned his home into a crime scene, cops say."