Authorities connect fatal police-involved Gurnee shooting with earlier Antioch incident
GURNEE (Sun-Times Media Wire) - North suburban authorities released new details Thursday connecting a fatal police-involved shooting in Gurnee with an earlier standoff in Antioch.
The woman shot and killed Wednesday by Gurnee police officers was identified Thursday as 31-year-old Makell Meyerin, of Antioch, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office. Authorities also announced felony charges against 37-year-old Jordan J. Huff in the case, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.
The incidents that led to Meyerin’s death, initially thought to be separate, started about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday when Antioch police officers were called about a suspicious vehicle in the 400 block of Donin Road, according to the sheriff’s office.
A responding officer found the vehicle with a man and two women inside, but the driver refused to stop when the officer tried to pull the vehicle over, the sheriff’s office said. The vehicle then rammed the police car before speeding away.
A witness also reported seeing a long-barrel weapon pointed out of the passenger side window and hearing a gunshot, the sheriff’s office said. No one was struck by gunfire and no injuries were reported in the crash.
The vehicle was later found outside a house in the 40500 bock of Route 83 in Antioch, according to the sheriff’s office. The single-family home is subdivided into multiple rentable units.
Lake County and Antioch police officers established a perimeter around the house, and several residents who were not involved in the incident were escorted out of the home, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities eventually took two people of interest into custody for questioning.
Police determined one of the people wasn’t involved in the incident, and he was released without charges. The other person, a woman, was suspected of being one of the passengers in the car. She hasn’t yet been charged in the incident.
In the afternoon, police officers in nearby Gurnee responded to a call of a suspicious white Toyota Prius with a bullet hole in its side about 1:20 p.m. near Harper Avenue and Gould Street, the sheriff’s office said.
Responders found a Meyerin and an unconscious Huff in the car and called paramedics to help him, the sheriff’s office said. When the paramedics arrived on scene, Meyerin put the car in gear and drove off, hitting a firetruck in the process. She eventually crashed in Chittenden Park and ran away.
Officers later found Meyerin standing in the southbound lanes of Route 41, just north of Grand Avenue, the sheriff’s office said.
Two officers shot at Meyerin, who was waving around a long-barrel firearm, according to the sheriff’s office. She was struck by the gunfire and later died of her injuries at 2:33 p.m. at Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, the Lake County Coroner’s Office said. Paramedics took Huff to a hospital for a medical condition and later released him.
An investigation found Meyerin was the passenger in the Antioch incident, and Huff was suspected to have been the driver, the sheriff’s office said.
Huff was charged with one felony count each of aggravated fleeing and eluding and criminal damage to state property, and a misdemeanor count of resisting a peace officer, the sheriff’s office said. It was unclear if the other passenger would be charged.
The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation by the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, per department policy.