BRADLEY, Ill. (KMOX/AP) - The horrific last moments of Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic's life were laid out by a prosecutor in court Monday, at the bond hearing of the man who allegedly shot and killed her with her own gun.
Rittmanic and her partner, Officer Tyler Bailey, were allegedly shot on Dec. 29 while investigating a noise complaint regarding dogs barking in a parked car outside a Comfort Inn. Bailey is still in the hospital "fighting for his life," Rowe said, according to WBBM.
Xandria Harris, 26, and Darius Sullivan, 25, face a litany of felony charges.
“Sgt. Rittmanic was pleading with them to, ‘Just leave, you don’t have to do this, please just go, please don’t, please don’t,’” Rowe said. “She was desperately pleading for her life.”
Rittmanic, 49, and Bailey, 27, were taken to hospitals in critical condition, where Rittmanic died.
The officers knocked on the hotel room door of Harris and Sullivan, then Sullivan shot Bailey in the head with a gun. He also shot at Rittmanic as she tried to run away, then chased her down a hallway and pinned her against a door, Rowe says.
There was a struggle as he tried to unjam his gun using one hand and his mouth, while also fighting with Rittmanic, Rowe explained. He called out to Harris and she helped him disarm Rittmanic.
The encounter was captured on the officer's body camera.
The two then stood over Rittmanic pointing guns at her as she laid on the floor, already shot once, Rowe said. She begged Sullivan not to shoot her.
Sullivan allegedly fired two shots that hit Rittmanic in the neck.
Sullivan fled while Harris went back to the hotel room to gather her belongings and her two children, who were in the room at the time, Rowe said.
Sullivan was arrested without incident after he walked out of a home in North Manchester, Indiana. He remains in Indiana custody as the Kankakee County prosecutors await a Governor’s Warrant to extradite him back to Illinois.
Harris surrendered at the Bradley Police Department about seven hours after Sullivan’s arrest, accompanied by her attorney.
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