News Local/State

Standoff In Rantoul Ends In Apparent Suicide

WILL Staff
 
Jacob Morrissey mugshot.

Jacob K. Morrissey, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound white male with brown hair and blue eyes was wanted by police for entering a home in St. Joseph and shooting its occupants.

The Champaign County Sheriff's Office reports that the standoff involving Jacob K. Morrissey in Rantoul ended with his apparent suicide.  Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said Morrissey, 26, Mahomet, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday at a residence at the 1200 block of East Clark Street in Rantoul.

Preliminary information from the investigation indicate Morrissey died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  A final synopsis issued by Sheriff Dan Walsh said the county's Metro SWAT team attempted to negotiate with Morrisey throughout the day Monday, arriving on the scene about 12:30 p.m. and communicating with him for more than 10 hours. Relatives of Morrissey's live in the Rantoul home.

"Morrissey made numerous statements advising negotiators he was not going back to prison and was going to commit suicide," said Walsh in the synopsis.  "Mr. Morrissey also ignored pleas and statements during the negotiations from very close family members and a very close friend that he surrender peacefully and not hurt himself or others."

Just past 10:30 p.m., the SWAT team released non-lethal chemicals into the area of the attic as Metro negotiators were giving commands to Morrissey to surrender peacefully.  And just past midnight, SWAT team members entered the attic, where they found Morrisey's body, and a shotgun nearby.

"The evidence suggests that Morrissey died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," said Sheriff Walsh's synopsis. A final determination will be made after an autopsy that was scheduled to be conducted Tuesday morning.

Jacob K. Morrissey was wanted by police for entering a home in St. Joseph at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, shooting at the occupants.  A male occupant of the home was hit in the face, shoulder, and neck areas and is still hospitalized. 

Morissey was also being sought in connection with two stolen vehicles, one from the Village Pantry in Georgetown, and another from the Lake of the Woods apartments in Mahomet, where he held two people at gunpoint for over an hour. According to Sherriff Walsh's office, Morrissey told the two he held in Mahomet that he had meant to kill the man he shot in St. Joseph.