Fugitive Who Shot Illinois Deputy to Death Arrested After Standoff

Fugitive Who Shot Illinois Deputy to Death Arrested After Standoff
A McHenry County Sheriff's cruiser with lights on participates in the miles-long procession leaving Mercyhealth's Javon Bea Hospital and Physician Clinic-Riverside with the body of the McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner in Rockford, Ill. on March 7, 2019. (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)

ROCKFORD, Ill.—A man suspected of fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy and wounding a woman at an Illinois hotel was taken into custody on March 7 after an hours-long standoff that began when he crashed his vehicle along an interstate highway, authorities said.

Floyd E. Brown, 39, was arrested hours after the crash in central Illinois, State Trooper Sean Ramsey said. Officers employed flash grenades to disable Brown after trying for hours to negotiate with him to surrender, police said.

Brown, of Springfield, was taken to a hospital to be treated for several injuries. It wasn’t immediately known what caused the injuries, Ramsey said.

Active Shooter Briefing

Posted by Rockford Illinois Police Department on Thursday, 7 March 2019

Floyd E. Brown
This undated booking photo released by Illinois Department of Corrections shows Floyd E. Brown, suspected of shooting a sheriff’s deputy and a woman on March 7, 2019 (Illinois Department of Corrections via AP)

Brown is accused of fatally shooting 35-year-old Deputy Jacob Keltner, a 12 ½-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office in northern Illinois. Keltner was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours after he was shot, spokesman David Dezane said.

Police said a 25-year-old woman described as an acquaintance of Brown suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening after being hit with one of Brown’s rounds. She was treated at a hospital and released.

No shots were fired by law enforcement during the incident, authorities said.

illinois shooting scene
Area law enforcement vehicles gather near the scene of a shooting in Rockford, Ill., on March 7, 2019. (Ken DeCoster/Rockford Register Star via AP)

SHERIFF PRIM STATEMENT REGARDING LINE-OF-DUTY DEATH;DEPUTY SHERIFF JACOB KELTNERE.O.W. MARCH 7, 2019 ​It is with…

Posted by McHenry County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, 7 March 2019

The shootings happened Thursday morning at a hotel as a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force tried to serve Brown with an arrest warrant for burglary and parole violation charges. Brown fled the hotel in Rockford in Winnebago County, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, and traveled about 170 miles (274 kilometers) to Logan County in central Illinois, police said.

Prosecutors in Winnebago County in northern Illinois initially issued a warrant with $5 million bond against Brown for attempted murder. State’s Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross said the charge was upgraded to first-degree murder after Keltner died. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office said Brown also will face a federal murder charge in the death of the deputy, who was assisting federal law enforcement when he was shot.

last salute Illinois shooting
Ron Schwartz, an acting officer and driving engineer of Rockford Fire Department’s Engine 6, salutes as the law enforcement procession stretching miles long carrying the body of McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Keltner passes along West State Street in Rockford, Ill. on March 7, 2019 (Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star via AP)

McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim called Keltner a “great guy” whose father and brother serve in law enforcement in suburban Chicago.

“Jake was a fine young man who leaves a wife and two young children,” Prim said. “We are going to miss him.”

Keltner was the first officer in the department to die in the line of duty in three years, Prim said.

From 2009 to 2019, 73 officers were killed nationwide while attempting to serve warrants, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit group that keeps track of officer fatalities nationwide.

Officer shot at a hotel in Illinois
This image provided by ABC 7 Chicago shows police activity at a hotel in Rockford, Ill., on March 7, 2019. (ABC 7 Chicago via AP)

Rockford, Illinois active shooter

BREAKING: A U.S. Marshall has been shot in an active shooter situation at a hotel in Illinois.Read the latest: https://bit.ly/2EUVr5R

Posted by WVLT on Thursday, 7 March 2019

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