The Chicago Police Department is losing a beloved police officer.
LaRoyce Hawkins, who has played police officer Kevin Atwater since the crime drama debuted in 2014, is leaving the NBC procedural after 13 seasons. I learned the news.
However, Atwater has not yet turned in his badge, and Hawkins is expected to continue in the role in the first few episodes of season 14, which is scheduled to air later this year and conclude the character’s storyline.
In season 13, Atwater sparked a romance with fellow Officer Tasha Fox (Karen Obilom) and moved to Miami for a new job before learning she was pregnant with her first child. So with Hawkins’ impending departure, the character may be considering leaving the Windy City and joining Fox and the unborn child in Florida.
Of course, Hawkins isn’t the first main cast member to make an abrupt exit from the Chicago Police Department, with roots dating back to Sophia Bush’s abrupt exit in 2017.
Jesse Lee Soffer (Jay Halstead) will leave the series in 2022 and go on to star in FBI: International, while Tracy Spiridakos (Detective Hailey Upton) will leave the series in 2024. Spiridakos will return to television this fall as the titular mystery-solving park ranger in an adaptation of the best-selling American book series “Anna Pidgeon.”
