A man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of an Illinois state trooper who was shot while serving a search warrant.
The St. Clair County state’s attorney announced the charge Saturday against Chris Grant. He’s in custody in southwestern Illinois on a $5 million bond. It’s not known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Trooper Nicholas Hopkins was shot Friday in East St. Louis during an exchange of gunfire while serving the warrant. He later died at a hospital.
The 33-year-old trooper was a state police officer for 10 years. He was married with three children. The Illinois State Police Heritage Foundation is accepting donations for the family.
“It is nearly impossible to express the depth of my sadness and my condolences to the entire Hopkins’ family and his friends and the Illinois State Police family,” State Police Acting Director Brendan Kelly said on Friday. “I give my thanks to troopers who performed CPR for an extended period on their fellow trooper to sustain their brother’s life so that his family could see him one last time.”
The shooting Friday, was the latest of law enforcement officers while attempting to serve a warrant, and the second of an Illinois State trooper this month.
A Philadelphia man who barricaded himself in a house is charged with attempted murder for the Aug. 14 shooting of six police officers.
Maurice Hill, 36, is accused of shooting at officers who were serving a drug warrant and then keeping police at bay while he fired from inside a building. The six officers were released after being treated at hospitals. Four other men are charged with drug offenses.
A suburban Chicago man has been charged with attempted murder for shooting and wounding an Illinois state trooper who was serving a warrant at the man’s home.
The wounded trooper was with other officers attempting to serve the warrant Aug. 15 at the home of Volodymyr Dragan, 43, of Wheeling when someone inside fired shots, striking a trooper in the arm. Dragan is being held without bond.
Illinois State Police has also suffered an unusual number of fatalities this year with the deaths of three troopers.
Troopers Christopher Lambert, in January, and Brooke Jones-Story, in March, were struck by vehicles. Trooper Gerald Ellis died in an automobile crash in March.
![A Cook County judge issued an arrest warrant for an Aurora man in connection with the killing of Chicago police Officer Luis Huesca, according to court records. Xavier Tate Jr. was named in a first-degree murder warrant that ordered authorities to detain him, according to documents filed in Cook County Circuit Court Friday. A felony complaint accuses him of firing a .40 caliber handgun at Huesca, killing him. Huesca, 30 and a six-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, was in Gage Park when he was shot multiple times on the 3100 block of West 56th Street while off-duty but […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CTC-L-CPD-luis-huesca-01_187858445_de8a4b.jpg?w=620 "A Cook County judge issued an arrest warrant for an Aurora man in connection with the killing of Chicago police Officer Luis Huesca, according to court records. Xavier Tate Jr. was named in a first-degree murder warrant that ordered authorities to detain him, according to documents filed in Cook County Circuit Court Friday. A felony complaint accuses him of firing a .40 caliber handgun at Huesca, killing him. Huesca, 30 and a six-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, was in Gage Park when he was shot multiple times on the 3100 block of West 56th Street while off-duty but […]")
