Chicago Top Cop Eddie Johnson Admitted to Having a Few Drinks Before He Passed Out in Car: Mayor

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson admitted to having  “a couple of drinks with dinner” Wednesday night before he was found asleep in his vehicle early Thursday morning, The Chicago Sun-Times reports. Johnson reportedly made the admission to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who refused to say whether Johnson should have avoided driving or whether the authorities who responded to the scene should have given him a sobriety test. According to The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday that the officers who found Johnson didn't notice “any signs of impairment.”

Johnson previously told reporters that he had felt tired after work on Wednesday and went out to dinner with friends. When he was driving home early Thursday, he said he felt ill and pulled over. He blamed the incident on his failure to take his blood pressure medication. Police found him pulled over and apparently asleep in a vehicle after a 911 call, and let him drive home. “He’d been out to dinner with some folks. He told me he was driving home. He felt ill and pulled over to the side of the road, which he believed was the prudent thing to do,” Lightfoot said. “I have no reason to doubt [it]. We know he’s had some medical issues.” Lightfoot said she would wait for the results of the Internal Affairs investigation that Johnson ordered on himself.