Police officer killed in hotel shooting in northern Illinois

An officer who was shot while serving an arrest warrant at a hotel in Rockford in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois Thursday morning has died of injuries.

Thirty five-year-old Jacob Keltner worked for the McHenry County sheriff's office and was part of the task force trying to serve an arrest warrant in the Rockford hotel at about 9:15 am, when the suspect, 39-year-old Floyd E. Brown, fired a rifle inside a hotel room.

When local police responded to reports of gunfire, Brown was already gone in a light blue or silver Mercury Grand Marquee, according to Rockford Police Deputy Chief John Pozzi.

Brown is wanted on several warrants. Winnebago County State's Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross said an additional arrest warrant has been issued charging Brown with attempted first-degree murder of a police officer, and the warrant carries a 5-million-dollar bond, local media reported.

Illinois state troopers spotted the suspect's car in the Bloomington area and tried to pull it over at noon, but Brown continued to flee.

The car eventually left the roadway and crashed into a field off I-55 in Lincoln, about 220 kilometers south of Rockford.

Brown remains barricaded inside the car, and SWAT officers are negotiating with him at the scene, local media quoted Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Sam Thomas as saying.

Rockford is about 130 kilometers northwest of downtown Chicago.