Deputy Dies After Shooting At Rockford Hotel; Suspected Gunman In Custody After Standoff Downstate
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A McHenry County Sheriff's deputy has died after he was shot while helping a federal task force serve an arrest warrant at a Rockford hotel. The gunman led police on a chase that ended with him crashing in central Illinois near Lincoln, where he was finally arrested after a standoff with police.
Authorities used tear gas shortly before 5 p.m. and took Floyd E. Brown into custody.
Brown is charged with first degree murder of an officer and is also facing federal charges because Keltner was assisting U.S. Marshals. Prosecutors said they were not ruling out the death penalty in this case. Brown was due to make his first court appearance Friday at 10 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Rockford.
McHenry County officials identified the deputy as Jacob Keltner. The 35-year-old served 12 years with the department.
Rockford Police Deputy Chief John Pozzi said the deputy was assigned to a U.S. Marshals Service task force that was serving an arrest warrant on 39-year-old Brown at the Extended Stay America hotel in Rockford around 9:15 a.m. Thursday.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Brown used a rifle to fire shots through the door as officers approached his hotel room. Brown also shot at the officers as he fled the hotel, striking Keltner.
The deputy was shot in the parking lot, and police later discovered a woman acquaintance of Brown's had been shot inside the hotel room.
Police said no officers fired shots during the encounter with Brown at the hotel.
The wounded deputy was taken to Mercy Health Javon Bea Hospital in critical condition, where he later died.
The wounded woman was being treated at a hospital, and was being questioned by police. Police said they could not provide any details on their relationship, other than they are acquaintances.
Pozzi said Brown fled the hotel through a hotel window, and drove away before more police arrived to secure the scene.
Sources said Brown later fired shots at Illinois State Police during a chase on Interstate 55, before he spun out near the town of Lincoln, in Logan County, about halfway between Bloomington and Springfield. Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Sam Thomas said Brown crashed in a field in a rural area far from any populated areas, and barricaded himself in his vehicle.
He was taken into custody around 5 p.m.
Brown has a long criminal history, and several active arrest warrants. Police said he has no known connection to the Rockford area.
Pozzi said Brown is wanted on arrest warrants in Sangamon, Champaign, and McLean counties; as well as a parole violation warrant from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
His records with the Illinois Department of Corrections show he was paroled in January 2018 from a 13-year sentence for nine charges of residential burglary. That sentence followed a 2 ½ year sentence in 2005 for one count of unlawful restraint and violation of an order of protection; and an 8-year sentence on a 2001 charge of felony possession of a firearm. It's unclear how much time he served in each of those sentences.
