On March 16, 2024. Officers from the Beloit Police Department were notified by Illinois Law Enforcement that they were chasing a Maroon Chevy Trailblazer that was involved in a shooting incident that was heading towards Beloit. The vehicle was spotted and the driver began to flee again. A pit Maneuver was performed and the suspect vehicle crashed into a patrol car almost pinning an officer. Shots were fired and the suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene. The only law enforcement injury was an officer had a small cut on his finger. Included below is a section from Sargent Lewis’s Report from this incident.
Ofc Sarver made contact with the suspect’s vehicle as if he was making a pit maneuver while the suspect made a left turn at high speed. At this time the suspect vehicle was turned and slowed. I suspected the suspect may have been largely boxed in at the time and would abandon the vehicle and either fight or flee on foot. I stopped and was preparing to exit my vehicle and pursue. The suspect looked at me and appeared to come at me intentionally. The suspect accelerated while appearing to turn the direction of his vehicle in an attempt to make a direct impact with the driver’s door of my squad car. I don’t recall if I ever partially exited the vehicle but recall the feeling of fleeing back into the vehicle to maintain cover in the squad car to keep from being crushed. I braced for contact as the vehicle struck my driver’s door with force and pinned my door shut. I feared I was trapped as well as exposed to potential gunfire as I was still operating under the assumption that he was armed and threatened to fire or fired shots at other officers. I was further concerned for the safety of other innocent bystanders should he resume flight at a high rate of speed, and for the immediate threat to other officers on scene that may have exited their squad cars by this time and would be at substantial risk should he attempt to reverse or accelerate away. The immediacy and gravity of the decision required split second decision making. Based upon what I felt to be an immediate threat to my safety, the safety of other officers on the scene, and the safety of other members of the community, I discharged my service weapon at the suspect.
This video is for educational purposes only.