Chicago Police Officer Areanah Preston murder: Accused cop killers identified in ambush robbery

Four suspects have been charged in the shooting death of Chicago Police Officer Areanah Preston and will face a Cook County Circuit Court judge at noon CT Wednesday, officials tell Fox News Digital.

Preston, 24, was shot and killed outside her South Side home Saturday after returning from a night shift, according to police.

Trevell Breeland, 19; Joseph Brooks, 19; Jakwon Buchanan, 18; and a 16-year-old juvenile whose name was not released, all face charges that include murder and robbery in Preston’s death. 

Police also charged them in connection with other robberies, a carjacking and in Breeland’s case, felon in possession of a firearm.

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Preston was a three-year veteran of the force and was due to receive a master’s degree from Loyola University in Chicago this coming Saturday.

Her family will accept her degree at the commencement ceremony, which is closed to the media, a school spokesman told Fox News Digital Wednesday.

Police took five persons of interest into custody earlier this week – four after a SWAT standoff at 76th and Bishop streets on Sunday night, and a fifth separately, according to law enforcement sources – but it was not immediately clear whether they were all connected to the attack on Preston.

Both Breeland and Buchanan lived on the Bishop Street, police said. 

A spokesperson for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx deferred questions about the investigation to Chicago police.

Early on in the investigation, the attack was believed to have been a robbery, according to the city’s chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

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A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital it fit the pattern of a “swarm” style robbery, in which a group of crooks rush a single victim. The number and nature of Preston’s gunshot wounds also suggested an up-close encounter, the source said.

Preston, after working a night shift, returned home around 1:45 a.m. Saturday, according to police. Around that time, dispatchers received an alert of shots fired on her block.

“Officers responded and found one of our own suffering gunshot wounds,” the department’s interim superintendent, Eric Carter, said during an emotional news briefing Saturday morning.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the shooting “awful and tragic” and said she had instructed police to “spare no expense” in hunting down the suspects.

“There are some who say that our police officers are not worthy of our respect,” she said. “There are some who say we should not be supporting and funding our police department. I would urge any person who holds that view to reflect on moments like this.”