Road Renamed To Honor Slain State Trooper

LOCKPORT, IL — The section of Route 53 in front of the Illinois State Police headquarters will be renamed to honor Richard G. Warner, a state trooper killed in the line of duty in 1969. State Senator John Connor sponsored the resolution, which passed in the Senate on June 3.

The House also passed the resolution on Wednesday.

“Trooper Richard G. Warner was an example of selfless duty, and his loss rocked a community,” Connor said in a release. “All police officers, whether state troopers, sheriff's deputies, or local police departments, experience risks every day that few of us fully appreciate.”

A veteran of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, Warner was shot to death at the Illinois State Police Headquarters District 5 in Lockport on April 21, 1969, after responding to a traffic accident in which a fellow Navy combat veteran had attempted to kill himself, according to a release from Connor's office. The driver had been hospitalized at the VA two years earlier for what was then called a "nervous breakdown," Connor said in remarks on the Senate floor.

The driver was briefly left in the office at headquarters, and grabbed another trooper's handgun from a desk and fired two shots, fatally wounding Trooper Warner and injuring another trooper, before taking his own life, Connor said.

“If the driver that Trooper Warner was attempting to help had received comprehensive mental health treatment in 1967, prior to his suicide attempt, he and Trooper Warner might never have crossed paths on that fateful day,” Connor said. “We must do better for all our veterans so that they have access to the best mental health treatment available after experiencing the horrors of war."

According to the joint resolution, Warner was a 12-year veteran of the state police, and he was survived by his wife and four children.

The stretch of Route 53 that passes by Illinois State Police Headquarters District 5 will now be designated Trooper Richard G. Warner Memorial Highway.