Trio Accused Of Strangling Officer Charged With Attempted Murder

AURORA, IL — Three people accused of beating and strangling an Aurora police officer after being pulled over for running a stop sign are now facing attempted first-degree murder charges, according to officials from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office.

Jennifer Taylor, 24, Sheba Taylor, 26, and Paul Sherrod Taylor, 28, members of the same family, were charged with five felonies each last month, but on July 16 a grand jury indicted them on attempted murder charges in connection with the case. The three are out on bond until Sept. 24.

Police released a seven-minute dashcam video Wednesday showing the traffic stop that led to the incident. The video details the June 21 stop in which the Taylors were pulled over near Plum Street and Randall Road at around 10:30 p.m.

The video shows the lead-up to the alleged attack: A car rolls through a stop sign at the intersection, the officer signals for the driver to pull over, and the driver pulls into a residential driveway in the 600 block of North Elmwood Drive.

During the stop, police said people in the car began yelling obscenities at the officer and did not obey orders to stay in the vehicle.

While approaching the car, the video shows a female passenger get out of the back seat and begin walking toward the officer, despite multiple orders to get back into the vehicle. The officer threatens to arrest her for obstruction, then attempts to do so, but he cannot fully handcuff her before the male driver exits the car and threatens to fight the officer, according to the video.

What happened next was not fully captured by the dashcam video. In the audio, the officer can be heard telling the driver he is under arrest for obstruction. Police said the driver then took off running. The officer and the two female passengers followed, according to police. Since everyone left the dashcam's scope, there is no video of the chase or the alleged beating that followed.

During the chase, police said the two female passengers kicked and hit the officer repeatedly, while the male driver to hit him in the head. Police then said one of the women strangled the officer until he lost consciousness.

Other officers arrived on the scene during the alleged altercation and got the group into custody.

Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said the officer was taken to the hospital and is now back at work.

"Our Aurora police officers are entrusted with keeping our community safe from harm. I am at a loss of words when an officer is physically attacked from something that would have been a simple traffic ticket," Ziman said in a statement following the incident. "We will not allow our city to become a place where criminals feel emboldened, and lawlessness ensues."

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said he expects many officers to be outfitted with bodycams by the end of the summer in order to more accurately capture footage of incidents like this one.

Prosecutors explained this week why they think attempted murder charges are warranted.

"Because of the strangulation and because of the research that we know about how quickly it is for somebody to lose their life as a result of somebody preventing them from being able to breathe, we believe that the proper charge was attempted first-degree murder," Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser said of upgrading the severity of the charges Wednesday.