KANKAKEE COUNTY, Ill. — On December 29th in Kankakee County, Illinois, two police officers on the Bradley police force were shot, leaving one officer deceased and the other in the hospital in critical condition.
The two officers responded to a report of dogs barking in a Comfort Inn parking lot unattended.
The officers entered the hotel and headed to a room where they felt the possible owner of the vehicle was. At this point, the suspects attacked the officers.
During the attack police officer, Tyler Bailey was shot in the head by the suspects leaving him with a severe head injury. The suspects then chased Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic down the hotel hallway while one of the suspects struggled to unjam his gun. Another suspect Xandria Harris allegedly helped suspect Darius
Sullivan disarm the sergeant. Sergeant Rittmanic spent the last moments of her life begging the suspect and pleading that he did not have to do this.
The suspect allegedly fired two shots from Rittmanic’s gun, hitting the sergeant in the neck area. The suspects gathered their belongings and fled. Harris’s two children were in the room during the altercation and fled after it occurred.
On Friday, December 31st Sullivan was arrested in North Manchester, Indiana. Harris turned herself in to the Bradley Police Department on the same day.
Suspect Sullivan is charged with six counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one charge of aggravated battery with a firearm. Suspect Harris is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Kankakee County State attorney Jim Rowe announced that his office has filed state charges against suspects Sullivan and Harris and sought life sentences for them both. Rowe also submitted a request to the U.S attorney for the Central District of Illinois and the U.S. Attorney General to review the cases for federal murder charges and to pursue the death penalty for the two suspects.
Even though Illinois is not a death penalty state, the U.S. attorney has the power to authorize a petition to seek the death penalty in a federal case.
Suspect Harris’s arraignment is scheduled for January 27th, and suspect Sullivan’s arraignment is still to be determined.
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