Pritzker says he doesn’t know details of deadly Jan. 4 shooting by Illinois State Police

Gov. JB Pritzker said he has not seen the video of an Illinois State Police trooper shooting an unarmed woman to death in January, though he reiterated trust in the department’s leadership on Wednesday.

“So, I have to admit that the details of the decision about that, I do not know. So, it’s very hard for me to have a reaction,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Chicago, though he later referred to the woman who was shot as a “victim.”

He was specifically asked about the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s decision not to file charges against trooper Gary Blake Novack for shooting and killing Rachel Tarrence, a mother of three, during a traffic stop in East. St. Louis on Jan. 4.

Capitol News Illinois first reported the decision not to charge Novack on Monday.

Read more: Woman’s death was first fatal shooting by Illinois State Police this year. Were trooper’s actions justified? | Prosecutors decline to charge Illinois State Police trooper in fatal shooting of mother of 3

The details of the shooting

Tarrence, 40, was unarmed but driving a Chevy Equinox that her mother had reported stolen earlier in the day when police pulled her over. With a passenger beside her and her 4-year-old son strapped in a car seat behind her, she pulled into the drive-thru of a liquor store.

State Police had called for a felony traffic stop at 8:08 p.m., according to St. Clair County State’s Attorney James Gomric’s letter declining to file charges against Novack. Within seconds, Tarrence’s car was surrounded by four ISP vehicles at the Rainbow Liquor Mart drive-thru lane on State Street in East St. Louis.

With Novack’s squad blocking the exit, Tarrence put the car in reverse and hit an ISP squad car parked behind her, the video showed. Troopers emerged from their cars and began shouting orders.

“While officers are giving commands to the occupants of the (Tarrence’s) vehicle, the Equinox moves forward in the direction of Trooper Novack before coming to a stop,” Gomric’s letter to ISP stated.

Tarrence disregarded commands to put the car in park, as instructed by one trooper, according to the letter, and the engine can be heard revving up before the vehicle moves forward again.

Novack emerged from the car with his gun drawn and moved toward the front quarter panel of Tarrence’s car, then stepped to the side and back as he fired three shots, striking her twice, according to dash, body cam and surveillance videos released by ISP that captured the shooting. He does not appear to be in the path of the vehicle.

The passenger and Tarrence’s son were not injured.

‘A tragedy occurred here’

“I will say that a tragedy occurred here,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “No one, no police officer, state police, or any other police officer, wants to have to pull a weapon out and be engaged in shooting in any way.”

But the governor also described Tarrence as a “victim” and promised to, at some point, be ready to react to the shooting. He said he had not reviewed the video.

“And, of course, the victim of that shooting is somebody that we should be thinking of, particularly this victim,” he said.

The ISP’s Division of Internal Investigation completed its investigation of the shooting in mid-February and turned it over to Gomric’s office to determine whether Novack’s use of force was lawful. The ISP’s Division of Internal Investigation reviews all officer-involved shootings by State Police personnel, according to ISP policy.

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly previously served as St. Clair County state’s attorney prior to being appointed to lead the ISP by Pritzker.

According to Gomric’s letter, evaluation of the shooting included “a detailed review of more than 40 hours of audio/video encompassing radio traffic, dash cam, body cam, surveillance and witness interviews.”

“I, again, have not seen all the information,” Pritzker said. “But I will say that we have leadership at the Illinois State Police, in particular, that is of very high character, and I expect that they have done a thorough job in reviewing this, and that the matter has been, you know, been made transparent within the department and within the adjudicators of it.”

Four days after the Illinois shooting, Pritzker began a news conference by addressing another instance of a law enforcement officer firing into a moving car and killing the driver. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent had shot and killed an unarmed woman, Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 as she drove away.

In that instance, Good stopped sideways in the street while the agent circled her car. As other agents approached, one told her to get out of the car. Good briefly put the vehicle in reverse, then began moving forward and to the right, into the direction of traffic. The ICE officer was standing at the front-left of the vehicle and fired, killing her.

“I encourage you all to go watch the video for yourselves,” Pritzker said of the Good shooting at the time. “I’ve watched an analysis of it frame by frame. It is harrowing. It is unimaginable to think that this can happen in our country.”

Beth Hundsdorfer contributed to this report.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.