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Pritzker says he knows few details about ISP shooting unarmed woman, says he hasn’t watched the video (Updated)
Wednesday, Jul 22, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * Background is here if you need it. ..
The governor has commented innumerable times about videos of fatal ICE shootings, including of an unarmed woman in a car. But an unarmed Illinois woman was shot to death by his own State Police force and he didn’t watch the video? …Adding… From the governor’s office…
…Adding… St. Clair County State’s Attorney… On the morning of Thursday, July 16th, State’s Attorney James Gomric and his assistants met with the family of Rachel Terrence and their attorney. This meeting was scheduled through their counsel on July 1st and was scheduled at a time convenient for the family to meet in person. Out of respect for the family of Ms. Terrence, a meeting was held in advance of the release of the findings letter relating to the officer involved shooting from January 4th of this year. The attached letter was signed by State’s Attorney Gomric on the morning of July 16th and submitted to Illinois State Police to inform them of our conclusions. The letter contains a summary of the more than 40 hours of audio and video reviewed, including radio traffic, dash cam footage, body cam footage, video surveillance, and witness interviews. The office additionally reviewed the reports and documents submitted by the Division of Internal Affairs for the Illinois State Police. These materials were reviewed by multiple senior attorneys within the State’s Attorney’s Office, ultimately reaching the same conclusion. Based upon the materials presented, the State’s Attorney’s Office will not be filing criminal charges against Trooper Novak in the death of Rachel Terrence.
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- Google is Your Friend - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:06 pm:
==No one, no police officer, State Police, or any other police officer wants to have to pull a weapon out, be engaged in shooting in any way==
This is demonstrably false. Some of the ICE shootings referenced in this post prove the governor’s statement false.
- Almost the Weekend - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:11 pm:
Pritzker can’t have it both ways, and this will be his downfall in his 2028 POTUS Campaign. He will trash everything at the federal level because of Trump, then hide behind word slop when it takes place here.
Murder is not the charge for the ISP officer, but you can argue a lesser charge. There’s no way he should be employed as an officer anywhere in Illinois going forward, I can say that.
- The Opinions Bureau - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:13 pm:
Illinois deserves a governor that cares about Illinois state government.
- Jack in Chatham - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:14 pm:
Good follow up questions by Isabel.
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:19 pm:
Shouldn’t he really have let investigation play out as it did? I mean what was he supposed to do look at video or make comments on this before it was investigated? Other than to say the process must play out what is his role other than to point out that he tragedy? Now perhaps he could look at everything and if he thinks justice was denied as the AG to look into it
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:20 pm:
=== I mean what was he supposed to do look at video or make comments on this before it was investigated?===
LOLOL
Like he waited patiently for weeks to say something about the ICE shootings?
C’mon.
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:26 pm:
Rich not that I am cynical but to me making broad political statements about things you are not in charge of is easy, actually being in charge and running things should require some restraint. And I speak as a former Republican
- H-W - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:28 pm:
There is a lot wrong about this shooting. Ignoring issues surrounding mental health, which the officers may not have known, it is unclear there was any imminent threat to life.
We know it was reported that the car was stolen. Then the car was identified. The car had three occupants counting the driver when it was identified.
The car was boxed in. So at this point, the suspect had been subdued. The car tried to back away but could not. It tried to go toward (but could not have done so).
The officer shot to kill the driver of a detained, stolen vehicle. The officer was not in harms way.
When did negotiation become a “now or never” proposition in law enforcement? There is a lot wrong here when officers are more prepared to kill than to resolve a stolen vehicle incident.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:32 pm:
- being in charge and running things should require some restraint -
Restraint is fine, but the investigation is complete and the SA made their announcement. JB should have been ready for these questions.
- Parkey - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:38 pm:
Bad staff work.
- SOILL - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 12:40 pm:
-The governor has commented innumerable times about videos of fatal ICE shootings, including of an unarmed woman in a car. But an unarmed Illinois woman was shot to death by his own State Police force and he didn’t watch the video?-
To be fair, he likely didn’t watch the ICE shooting videos either before he made unfounded claims of improper use of force.
- Dakno Thing - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 1:10 pm:
I’m sorry but it’s absurd to compare this to ICE shootings. I watched the video of this and I watched all of the ICE videos and they are not remotely the same. And it doesn’t serve the public well to suggest they are.
As to the Governor’s comments, if there is an ongoing investigation that the Governor or his office have any oversight of then any lawyer or good government expert worth their salt would be telling him to do and say what he said here. I realize that might not be sexy but it is responsible and it’s what I appreciate about Pritzker. That might be unsatisfying but it’s the truth.
- Occaisionally Moderated - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 1:32 pm:
I’m not wading into the fray but I will say that the NPR Illinois article from 5 days ago was very well written.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 2:25 pm:
Three cops with guns out for a non-violent crime? The car is boxed in, they aren’t going anywhere.
“Put your hands up” and “Put the car in park”? Can’t do both. Driver hit the wiper handle perhaps trying to put it in park. Got shot anyway.
Terrible police work. Not surprised though that there were no charges.
- Google is Your Friend - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 2:55 pm:
==- Dakno Thing - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 1:10 pm:==
You claim to have watched “all of the ICE videos” as well as this video and yet you don’t know that in this incident, police shouted contradictory commands simultaneously just as ICE has done.
https://thedispatch.com/article/renee-good-ice-federal-agents-death-immigration/
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 3:41 pm:
“==No one, no police officer, State Police, or any other police officer wants to have to pull a weapon out, be engaged in shooting in any way”
He not familiar with Sean Grayson?
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 3:46 pm:
===He not familiar with Sean Grayson? ===
He spoke out about that soon after the shooting. https://gov-pritzker-newsroom.prezly.com/gov-pritzker-issues-statement-on-sonya-massey
And a month after the shooting, he called on the sheriff to resign https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/07/sonya-massey-shooting-illinois-governor-sheriff-resign
- SOIL M - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 3:55 pm:
The part that is completely unbelievable is that the Governor does not have any knowledge of the details of this incident.
The Director did not brief him on this? No Deputy Director, or even PIO briefed the Governors office?
The PIO did not clear anything through the Governors Press Office?
No way is that possible.
If the Director did not personally brief the Governor, he should be fired.
Too bad there isn’t a journalist to FOIA the Director and staff for any and all communications with the Governor and Governors staff, including phone records and in person meetings, from the date of this incident until present.
If the Governor is telling the truth, the Director should be fired for not keeping him informed.
- Occasionally Moderated - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 4:19 pm:
Conflicting commands happen at every chaotic scene.
If one of them was “ram the squad car out of the way”, I’ll concede your point.
Perfect verbal direction would not have stopped the deceased woman from doing what she was doing, especially considering her history of fleeing.
There were mistakes made but conflicting verbal commands doesn’t even make my top five list.
ISP should not be compared to ICE. Just like police should not be compared to military. There is no equivalency’s. They are apples and oranges.
I too am frustrated with what I see. There are both training issues and decision making issues that led to a death. Yet we cannot disregard completely the decisions made by a person with a history of fleeing who decided to do it with her child in the car.
Mistakes were made. This was a terrible result and I see at least two ways two more people could have paid with their lives, one being an infant.
Is this the Governor supporting “his” troopers? I don’t know- but even if it isn’t I appreciate that his instinct wasn’t to throw the trooper under the bus and move on. That would have been the easiest thing to do and he is now taking some heat for not doing it.
- Dotnonymous x - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 4:25 pm:
The Governor is getting paid to know.
- H-W - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 7:23 pm:
@ Occasionally Moderated
That said including training issues ….
The shoot to kill decision puts the onus on the police and the justice system writ-large. That shoot was not justified. Period.
- Occaisionally Moderated - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 7:56 pm:
The States Attorney has more information than the video to base his decision on. More information than we have.
A video is like raw data that hasn’t been analyzed. It is one piece of data among many. There are more facts that put the raw data into context. What the officers know, what is in their minds, what they saw matters in a use of force investigation. What witnesses knew and saw matters. We don’t have all of it to spread out on the desk in front of us to make our decision. We don’t have the results of investigation, we have a video and not much more.
If it as that simple, courtroom proceedings would amount to nothing more than playing the video in court.
- Been There - Wednesday, Jul 22, 26 @ 9:07 pm:
Three officers. I am pretty sure out of all of them they could have taken out at least one of the tires if not all four. The vehicle would not have been much of a weapon at that point.
- Jose Abreus' last homer - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 6:38 am:
@Been There - Illinois law enforcement officers are generally prohibited from shooting at tires or any part of a moving vehicle to disable it