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CHICAGO — A standing-room only crowd of uniformed Chicago Police officers packed a courtroom Thursday as prosecutors described a convicted felon’s attempt to flee a traffic stop that led him to fatally shoot a young police officer and his friend in the driver’s seat.
Darion McMillian, 23, is charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, first-degree murder, attempted murder of a police officer, residential burglary, unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. He was ordered detained Thursday before his trial.
Around 8 p.m. Monday, Officer Enrique Martinez and his partner were driving in Chatham after responding to an unrelated call when they saw a black Ford Escape with a broken tail light and fraudulent registration double-parked and blocking traffic in the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord said.
As the officers approached the SUV, McMillian moved a backpack from his chest to the floor of the front passenger seat, defying orders to show his hands, McCord said.
Martinez, 26, drew his gun and told McMillian to “stop reaching,” McCord said. That’s when McMillian pulled out a 40-caliber handgun with an illegal “switch” — which turns it into a machine gun — and fired toward Martinez, who was standing on the driver’s side, McCord said.
McMillian’s friend in the driver’s seat was fatally shot, and Martinez suffered five gunshots wounds, including one through his head, McCord said.
McMillian then pushed his dead friend out of the car as an officer responding as backup tried to pull McMillian out by his Blackhawks jersey, McCord said. McMillian reversed the car with the door ajar — knocking over that officer and causing him to fire his service gun — before crashing into a nearby parked car and making a run for it, McCord said.
Martinez was rushed to the hospital by fellow officers, where he was pronounced dead shortly after, McCord said.
McMillian broke into a house in the 8000 block of South Drexel Avenue, where he took a knife from a kitchen drawer and tried to cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet, which was put on him after he tried to cheat a drug screening, McCord said.
A caregiver inside the home saw McMillian try to cut off his monitor, telling her he “did something bad and needed a sharper knife,” McCord said.
McMillian then left the house, jumped a fence and ran through an alley — with two knives in hand and dirt marks on his white T-shirt — before officers identified and arrested him walking on Maryland Avenue, McCord said.
McMillian had marijuana and crack cocaine on him, and inside the Ford Escape officers found the gun with a switch, 14 shell casings and two baby bottles filled with “lean,” or prescription cough syrup used as a recreational drug, McCord said. The electronic monitor was found on the street.
“[McMillian] was desperate to escape,” McCord said, urging the judge to detain him.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Deidre Dyer agreed, calling McMillian a danger to the community.
“It seems your friends even are not safe in your presence,” Dyer said.
McMillian’s extensive criminal history includes pending felony charges for unlawful possession with the intent to deliver cannabis. A Harvey resident, McMillian has been convicted in suburban counties for felony aggravated fleeing and eluding and misdemeanor battery, the latter related to an attack inside Will County Jail, McCord said.
McMillian recently served four years for a felony aggravated discharge of a firearm conviction and was released on July 17, McCord said.
McMillian scowled and squinted at McCord as she laid out her argument, saying he “fired at Martinez through his friend” and was an “off-the-charts risk.”
“A police officer is dying in the street, he pushes his friend out the car, gets in [the driver’s seat], striking another officer in reverse,” McCord said. “He only gets out because he crashed it” and “continues into the home of somebody he doesn’t know.”
Martinez’s family watched from a court bench next to the mother of Officer Luis Huesca, who was shot and killed in April in an apparent carjacking as he pulled into his Gage Park driveway coming home from work.
Martinez’s partner, who made the traffic stop with him and saw him get shot, buried his head into the seat in front of him for much of the hearing.
Just across the aisle from Martinez’s family sat McMillian’s relatives. One of McMillian’s family members looked down and shook his head as he walked out of the courtroom between an honor guard formation that officers had made for Martinez’s family to leave through.
Both families declined to speak to a large crowd of reporters gathered in the hallway.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told reporters after the hearing that Martinez was a “good kid” from the city’s Southwest Side who “kept his nose clean” in his almost three years on the job.
Catanzara wants mandatory minimum sentences — 10 years for possession and 20 years for discharge — for those found with illegal switches attached to handguns.
A proliferating black market for switches is hyper-fueling weapons that make way to Chicago streets, according to the Sun-Times. People shot in Chicago are increasingly less likely to survive than they were a decade ago in part due to the weapons.
At a press conference Wednesday announcing the charges against McMillian, Supt. Larry Snelling said there was no reason for McMillian to be in the streets “with a fully automatic weapon.”
Five police officers have been shot and killed since Officer Ella French was murdered during a traffic stop in August 2021, said her surviving former partner, Officer Carlos Yanez Jr., who attended the hearing Thursday.
“Something needs to change,” Yanez Jr. said.
There will be a vigil for Martinez after a mass 7 p.m. Thursday at his West Lawn parish, St. Nicholas of Tolentine, 3721 W. 62nd St.
An online fundraiser to support Martinez’s family has raised over $34,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
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