There will be a vigil Thursday night at a hotel in Downstate Bradley for a police sergeant who was shot to death one year ago.
The vigil is being held at the Comfort Inn and Suites, where Police Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic and Officer Tyler Bailey were shot in December 2021. Rittmanic was killed with her own gun. Bailey was critically wounded.
The officers had gone to the hotel for a noise complaint about barking dogs in a car outside. The car was connected to a room where 25 year-old Darius Sullivan and 26 year-old Xandria Harris were staying. Prosecutors say Sullivan shot Officer Bailey in the head and then both pursued Sergeant Rittmanic down the hallway. Sullivan's gun jammed and he managed to take hers, prosecutors said. Her body camera video showed that she was desperately pleading for her life when Sullivan shot her to death.
Rittmanic's wife, Lynn Stewart Rittmanic, told the Kankakee Daily Journal, to know that she was loved so much and will be remembered and missed by so many gives me a sense of peace and strength.
Related
