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Mary Alice Love

Age : 37

Gender : Female

Race : Black

Date : 05/11/2026

Location : 1100 block of Ashbrook Drive

City : Mundelein

County : Lake

State : Illinois

Agency : Mundelein Police Department

Officer(s) :Christopher Brigano

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during mental health welfare check

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 05/11/2026 at approximately 5:57 p.m., Mary Alice Love’s mother, Jeffry Love, called 911 from the family’s home in the 1100 block of Ashbrook Drive because Love was experiencing a severe mental health crisis and making suicidal statements. Jeffry told the dispatcher that Love had bipolar disorder, did not want to live and had asked her mother to call police so officers would kill her. Jeffry repeatedly expressed fear that police would shoot her daughter and made clear that she was calling for help, not asking police to use force. Love’s sister separately called 911 and reported that the family had contacted the Lake County Crisis Center and that she was concerned about her mother remaining in the house with Love.
Mundelein police officers arrived carrying ballistic shields and initially spoke with Jeffry at the front door. Jeffry wanted to know what officers planned to do and asked them to come inside. Love was outside, seated alone in a chair on the rear patio, separated from the officers by a closed sliding-glass door. When officers walked through the house and saw Love through the glass, one officer reported that she had a knife. Police later claimed she possessed two large knives.
Rather than maintaining the physical barrier provided by the closed glass door, slowing the encounter or allowing a mental health professional to communicate with Love, the officers crowded into the room near the patio entrance and began physically moving Jeffry away from the door. Two officers grabbed or guided Jeffry, causing her to partially fall backward onto a couch. The disturbance immediately drew Love’s attention. Love stood from the patio chair, yelled and walked toward the sliding door while carrying knives.
Love opened the sliding-glass door and began entering her family’s home. Sergeant Christopher Brigano, positioned inside, immediately fired four rounds, striking Love multiple times. The available video does not show Brigano attempting to speak with Love, ordering her to drop the knives or warning that he would shoot before firing. Love’s family and a nearby resident also reported hearing no verbal commands before the four gunshots. The knives fell onto the patio as Love collapsed.
Firefighter-paramedics had been staged nearby while police handled the call. Officers requested them at approximately 6:11 p.m. after declaring the scene safe. Paramedics transported Love to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined that she died from multiple gunshot wounds. Brigano was transported for an evaluation and placed on administrative leave.
Brigano was an 18-year Mundelein Police Department veteran and had served approximately four and a half years as a patrol sergeant. The department described him as trained in Crisis Intervention Team response. Village compensation records dated May 2026 continued to list Christopher Brigano as a police sergeant.
The central reason Love was killed was that police knew before arriving that she was contemplating “suicide by cop,” but then created a close-range confrontation in the doorway she would have to use to reenter her own home. Love initially remained seated outside behind a closed glass barrier. The officers’ attempt to forcibly move her mother caused Love to rise and come toward the door. Brigano interpreted her possession of knives and movement through the doorway as an immediate deadly threat and fired four times. The family maintains that Love never pointed a knife at anyone, never attacked anyone and was shot without warning. Their attorney characterized the response as a series of tactical errors in which officers escalated the crisis they had been called to resolve.
The Mundelein Police Department later released a narrated and edited compilation containing excerpts from the 911 calls and selected body-camera footage rather than the complete raw recordings. The department replayed the shooting in slow motion and added graphics identifying what it said was a knife. News reporting noted that the graphics appeared to identify only one knife despite the department’s repeated claim that Love carried two. The family accused the department of selectively editing and presenting the recordings in a way that portrayed Love as an aggressor while omitting broader context about the officers’ actions.
Love’s family demanded release of all unedited body-camera and audio recordings, Brigano’s termination, suspension of two other officers involved in the response, an independent state and federal investigation, a public apology and changes to the village’s handling of mental health calls. Approximately 100 relatives, residents and supporters protested outside Mundelein Village Hall and marched to the police station on 06/18/2026. Family members and supporters subsequently attended multiple Village Board meetings demanding action.
The family was represented at different stages by civil-rights attorneys including Brandon Brown and Kevin W. O’Connor. Brown’s firm announced shortly after the shooting that it had been retained to represent Love’s family and estate. O’Connor later publicly represented the family during demonstrations and the coroner proceedings.
On 07/29/2026, a Lake County coroner’s jury ruled Love’s death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds. During the inquest, jurors questioned why Brigano did not use a Taser. Brigano reportedly testified that he did not believe a Taser would work. The family argued that this explanation was especially troubling because Brigano was a supervisor and crisis-intervention-trained officer. The homicide finding determines that Love was killed by another person but does not by itself decide whether Brigano committed a crime.
The Lake County Major Crime Task Force is conducting the outside investigation required by Illinois law. Following the coroner’s inquest, the investigative file was being forwarded to Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart for a determination concerning criminal charges. The family has asked Rinehart to prosecute Brigano and has continued demanding that Mundelein terminate him.
PENDING UPDATE:
A substantial amount remains pending in this case. This includes the state’s attorney’s final use-of-force and criminal review, any decision concerning charges against Christopher Brigano, Mundelein’s internal disciplinary decision, release of the complete body-camera and dispatch records, the family’s planned independent release or analysis of the unedited video, and anticipated civil-rights litigation by Love’s estate and family.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/mary-alice-love-new-developments-fatal-mundelein-police-shooting
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/family-mary-alice-love-presses-mundelein-leaders-over-fatal-officer-involved-shooting
https://abc7chicago.com/post/officials-release-bodycam-video-deadly-mundelein-police-shooting-mary-alice-love-appeared-armed-knives/19304811/
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/video-shows-moments-before-mundelein-officer-fatally-shoots-woman
https://abc7chicago.com/post/death-mary-alice-love-shot-mundelein-police-ruled-homicide-coroners-inquest-family-calls-firing-charges/19597786/
https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2026/05/18/family-hires-law-firm-to-represent-them-after-woman-fatally-shot-by-police-while-armed-with-2-knives-in-mundelein/
https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2026/06/19/her-life-mattered-approximately-100-protest-fatal-police-involved-shooting-of-armed-woman-in-mental-crisis-in-mundelein/
https://www.dailyherald.com/20260618/crime/a-series-of-tactical-errors-demonstrators-blast-police-over-shooting-death-of-mundelein-woman/
https://www.police1.com/officer-shootings/bwc-woman-approaches-ill-officers-with-knife-before-fatal-ois
https://www.mundelein.org/DocumentCenter/View/4378/FY2027-VOM-Salary-Compensation-Report-PDF