Officer shooting suspect crashes car along interstate

ROCKFORD, Ill. — A man suspected of shooting an officer Thursday at a northern Illinois hotel before fleeing the scene has crashed his vehicle along an interstate about 170 miles away, according to police.

Trooper Sean Ramsey tells WGN-TV that police have several officers and a negotiator at the crash scene. Illinois State Police say the suspect is inside his vehicle and troopers have closed down Interstate 55 in both directions.

Authorities said the suspect, 39-year-old Floyd E. Brown, shot an officer earlier Thursday at a hotel in Rockford as a fugitive task force tried to serve an arrest warrant. He then fled in a vehicle and drove south.

Authorities have not released the condition of the officer who was shot.

Rockford police Lt. Andre Brass said investigators believed Brown was armed when he fled the hotel in a light blue or silver Mercury Grand Marquis.

“Mr. Brown is considered armed and dangerous,” Brass said during a news conference Thursday morning. “Please do not approach.”

Brass said Brown was wanted on several warrants when the task force went to an Extended Stay America hotel in Rockford, a city about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.

Brass didn’t know what specific crimes the warrants alleged but said Brown was from the Springfield area, in central Illinois.

“We just want to end this incident peacefully with his surrender,” Brass said. “We have prayers for the officer that was hit and we have prayers for the officers that are trying to locate the suspect.”

The officer’s name hasn’t been released, but he was assigned to a Great Lakes regional fugitive task force, U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Belkis Cantor Sandoval said.