Mourners gather at the visitation for Chicago police Officer Jose "Joey" Huerta at the Hallowell & James Funeral Home in Countryside on Dec. 28, 2021. Huerta died of pneumonia from a COVID-19 infection Thursday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

       Jose “Joey” Huerta laid in an open casket Tuesday afternoon, dressed in his light blue Chicago police uniform with a white pinstriped Chicago Cubs jersey draped next to him at a funeral home in Countryside.

       The visitation room was filled with his family, friends and co-workers, many in uniform, looking over boards displaying photographs of Huerta growing up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. There were pictures of him playing baseball, getting married, and going to Disney World with his two children, along with other images.

       Huerta, 50, of Garfield Ridge, died Dec. 23 due to acute hypoxic respiratory failure, pneumonia and COVID-19, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He is the fifth Chicago police officer to die of complications from the coronavirus, officials said.

       Huerta was a Chicago police officer for 21 years and loved his time on the gang unit, coming up with plans to make arrests, his older brother Ben Huerta, 51, said. He received recognition this July for a 2017 response that led to “a homicide offender … captured and removed from the streets of Chicago,” according to a Chicago police awards page.

       Huerta’s family and the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police are now fighting to have Huerta’s death classified as in the line of duty.

       “Joey was an honorable police officer. He didn’t do anything wrong while on the job. He did everything he was supposed to do and then some,” Ben Huerta said. “Politicizing whether or not COVID was the cause of (his death) or not or anything beyond that is just wrong. They should honor him as a police officer, full honors.”

       Adriana Sandoval, left, and Benjamin Huerta reminisce during the visitation for Huerta’s brother, Chicago police Officer Jose "Joey" Huerta, at the Hallowell & James Funeral Home in Countryside on Dec. 28, 2021. Sandoval is a family friend. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

       Police spokesman Don Terry said Huerta’s death is under review to be considered on duty.

       That designation gives the officer’s family access to special financial benefits. Recipients receive the deceased officer’s annual salary for a year from the time of the officer’s death, and pending approval of the City Council, the spouse and any children under 26 would get health care benefits.

       From there, the officer’s family would be eligible to receive the officer’s pension, pending approval from city’s police pension fund. CPD also gives the officer a full honors funeral.

       The deaths of the four other Chicago police officers who died of COVID-19 were considered to be on duty and they were added to the department’s Memorial Wall this fall.

       In a YouTube video posted Monday, FOP President John Catanzara said the FOP originally held off posting arrangements for Huerta because they had hoped “the department would do the right thing and make it a line-of-duty death designation.”

       “The department is playing games with this designation,” said Catanzara, who added he thinks the department has been treating coronavirus-related deaths in the department differently.

       “His name will be on a memorial wall because that’s where it deserves to be,” Catanzara said.

       Police said Huerta most recently served in the gang investigations division, and during his career received 117 awards.

       pfry@chicagotribune.com

       Twitter @paigexfry

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