E Moline, ILL officer Shot in Vest POS Dead

[Iowa #1603]

East Moline PD officer shoots POS that shot him in the vest 2x.


Wounded East Moline officer in fair condition, dead shooter linked to armed robberies / QCTimes.com


UPDATED: East Moline Police killed an armed robbery suspect and a member of the force was injured when an attempt to serve an arrest warrant turned into a foot chase Wednesday evening.

The injured police officer — who was shot twice, according to investigator Rene Sandoval of the Illinois State Patrol — was in fair condition and being treated at Genesis Medical Center-Illini Campus in Silvis, Ill. His name and rank were not being released Wednesday evening.

The dead suspect, Kelton Trice, 21, of East Moline, was shot in an alley near the intersection of 10th Avenue and 17th Street. Trice was transported to Genesis Medical Center-Illini Campus, where he died.

Trice’s family and friends stood in the hospital parking lot and wandered in and out of the emergency room as East Moline and Illinois State Police officers stood outside. A phalanx of squad cars from Colona, East Moline, Silvis, Hampton, state police and Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department, ringed the hospital parking lot.

East Moline Mayor John Thodos arrived at the hospital where he met briefly with police officers.

“The officer is as OK as anyone shot in the vest can be,” Thodos said, voicing support for his officer and his department.

Wednesday’s shooting was the second in two days involving a robbery suspect and police officers. On Tuesday, police say Devon D. Dixon, 20, shot out a rear window in an unmarked squad car in the 200-300 block of 45th Street in Moline when a plain-clothes officer approached him.

Thodos was stunned by the recent incidents.

“Yesterday at Moline, then today we have one here, what can I say?” he said. “I’ve lived in the Quad-Cities all my life, what can I say.”

Wednesday’s incident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Officers went to Trice’s home at 1005 17th St. to serve him with an armed robbery warrant when he attempted to flee, Sandoval said.

Authorities said Trice was involved with a group of approximately five suspects in a string of recent armed robberies throughout the Quad-Cities. Specifically, Trice was allegedly involved in the robbery at Gas N Dash in East Moline, a few blocks east of the the neighborhood where he was shot. Dixon was among those allegedly involved in the armed robberies.

Investigators were releasing few details about the shooting. Sandoval did not say how many times Trice was shot, which officer or officers shot him or whether a weapon was taken off of Trice’s body.

“We continue to interview witnesses and it’s a large crime scene,” Sandoval said.

The officer-involved shooting angered some in the neighborhood, who hurled insults and profanity at police standing behind yellow caution tape at the several-blocks long crime scene. Gang task force and tactical team members from area police departments were brought in to help control the scene.

Caution tape blocked 17th Street from 8th Avenue to 13th Avenue later in the evening as police collected evidence and interviewed witnesses. Evidence was also collected at the hospital.

Deshawn Conwell, a friend of Trice’s, said he watched police chase Trice out of a park on 8th Avenue and toward his grandmother’s house on 10th Avenue.

When they turned the corner at 10th Avenue, Conwell, 16, said he saw police pull a gun and shoot Trice. Conwell said he heard at least seven shots fired by police. Conwell said police rolled Trice over and put handcuffs on him after he’d been shot.

“Whose gonna live after seven shots?” Conwell said.

Trice had a history of violent crime. The 2005 United Township High School graduate pleaded guilty in April of that year to battery and given conditional discharge after originally being charged with aggravated battery of a school employee.

He was sentenced to 30 months probation in December 2005 for reckless discharge of a firearm while a charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm was dismissed. In May 2006 he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in a public place and sentenced to 30 months probation and served 120 days in jail. A charge of aggravated battery great bodily harm was dismissed. The armed robbery charge was filed Wednesday.

The investigation into the shooting is being conducted by the Quad-City Public Integrity Task Force, a group made up of representatives of area police departments and commanded by Sandoval. East Moline officers will not be involved in the investigation, Sandoval added.

Hours after the incident, dozens of neighbors milled around the crime scene.

Anthony Whitworth, who lives on 11th Avenue, said his 7-year-old cousin was playing out in the backyard when gunfire erupted from a nearby alley.

“I told him to go inside and I went down the alley to see what was going on,” he said. “I saw one kid in the alley who was shot and a cop that was kind of fighting with somebody. Then I heard what sounded like 80 cop cars come down here.”

John Beechamp, who lives at the intersection of 17th Street and 11th Avenue, said he saw both shooting victims.

“I saw the kid lying on the ground and I saw the cop,” he said. “They were taking (the officer’s) vest off and put him in an ambulance.”

[Iowa #1603]

The officer was able to put 4 rounds in the X RING after being shot twice in the VEST. GOOD SHOOTING GOOD GUN CONTROL

Robbery suspect was hit by four shots / QCTimes.com

Kelton Trice was already running away from other officers Wednesday when he was confronted by Sgt. Tom Peterson and the two exchanged gunfire, a task force investigating the incident reported Friday.

Rene Sandoval, commander of the Rock Island County Integrity Task Force, said Peterson arrived at the scene alone and met Trice, 21, in an East Moline alley where the shooting occurred.

Trice died after being shot four times in the chest outside the home where he and his grandmother lived at 1005 17th Street, East Moline, shortly after 5 p.m. Autopsy results showed all four shots hit the left lateral side of his chest, and one that went all the way through his body caused his death.

Peterson, who was shot twice, had gone to the scene to assist others in arresting Trice on a warrant for an armed robbery at a neighborhood store. His bulletproof vest prevented the bullets from entering Peterson’s body but still caused injuries that put him in the hospital overnight, Sandoval said.

Six shell casings and two weapons were recovered at the scene, Sandoval said. Police have reported that the incident started in a park in the 1500 block of 10th Avenue where Trice ran from police.

Witnesses said some shots were fired near the park, but no shell casings have been found there, Sandoval said.

The two officers who arrived immediately after the shooting still had fully loaded guns and extra magazines, Sandoval said, adding the shooting was over by the time they arrived.

Sandoval said officers are still conducting interviews and had not talked to Peterson as of Friday afternoon.

The two guns, including one belonging to Peterson, and shell casings found at the scene as well as the weapons of the other officers who arrived shortly after have been taken for testing at a lab.

Sandoval did not know if Peterson was knocked down by the shots that hit him and said police are still investigating witness reports that Trice was shot after he went down. He could not say if Trice was still firing his weapon after he hit the ground.

“That’s what we want to determine,” he said.

East Moline Police Chief Victor Moreno said that when being shot at or physically threatened, his officers are “granted the authority and justified to use deadly force.” In such cases, it’s up to an outside agency to investigate the circumstances that led to the shooting.

Rock Island County Coroner Sharon Anderson wouldn’t speculate as to whether any of the other shots that hit Trice could have eventually caused his death. Anderson said an inquest is pending but likely won’t be scheduled until June at the earliest.

Trice was charged in Rock Island County Circuit Court on Wednesday afternoon in connection with a robbery April 9 at Gas N Dash Mart, 809 19th St., East Moline.

Devon Dixon, 20, is also charged in that robbery and several others. He was involved in an incident Tuesday in which he allegedly shot at a Moline police detective and struck the rear window of the officer’s car.

[glorifiedbabysitter]

Good shooting TEX!! Another bite the dust...

[shakedownshorti]

Wow, that was some good shooting....glad to hear that the Officer is OK!!!

[AZCorrections84]

And yet people are probably still angry at the Police Officer. What a crock.

Good shot man, good job.

So sad another pos is removed from the street before corrections could handle him.

[KBCraig]

Wow, six shots, six hits. A rare occurrence for either side.

[KSDog]

Good shooting. Glad to see another POS won't be costing the taxpayers anymore money.

[jafish]

Originally Posted by KBCraig

Wow, six shots, six hits. A rare occurrence for either side.

Amazing!! So glad the officer is alive, thank God.