Police pack courtroom as suspect ordered detained on charges of killing Police Officer Enrique Martinez

Police packed a courtroom Thursday, with officers standing two-deep along the walls, as a Harvey man appeared at a hearing on charges of killing Chicago Police officer Enrique Martinez with a burst of automatic gunfire that also claimed the life of the gunman’s friend.

Judge Deidre Dyer noted that Darion McMillian, 23, had cut off an electronic monitoring device as he fled the shooting during a traffic stop in the South Side Chatham neighborhood. She ruled him a danger to the community and ordered him detained.

“You were on EM for something far less serious than murder, and you were not compliant. Not by a longshot,” Dyer said as McMillian slumped back in his seat beside his court-appointed attorney.

McMillian appeared to scowl as Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord offered up an account of the shooting Monday night, occasionally looking out at the sea of police officers as well as at a bench where about a half-dozen family members sat.

A woman identified as his mother could be heard sobbing as McCord spoke.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

The fatal encounter began around 8 p.m. Monday when Martinez and his partner approached an SUV double-parked in the 8000 block of South Ingleside Monday evening, McCord said.

McMillian was in the passenger seat and began rooting through a backpack at his feet as Martinez spoke to the driver and Martinez's partner was at the passenger side. Martinez told McMillian to show his hands, and McMillian pulled out a .40-caliber handgun, modified with an extended magazine and a “switch” that made it fully automatic, McCord said.

McMillian opened fire on Martinez as he stood by the driver’s window, a volley of bullets struck both Martinez and McMillian’s friend in the driver’s seat, identified in charging documents as Mario Chambers. A third man, who apparently was unconscious throughout the shooting, was in the back seat, McCord said.

Chambers was hit multiple times in the face and head, Martinez took bullets to his head, arm and shoulder. Police found more than a dozen .40-caliber shells in and around the vehicle after the shooting.

McMillian then shoved Chambers’ body into the street and climbed into the passenger seat, driving off as Martinez’s partner tried to pull McMillian out of the car. McMillian hit reverse, causing the open car door to strike a third officer who was trying to pull Martinez out of the car.

After striking a parked car, McMillian fled, taking off the Blackhawk jersey he was wearing and entering a home in the 8000 block of Drexel. A witness described as a “caregiver” inside the apartment saw McMillian enter the kitchen and open drawers looking for something to cut off his ankle monitor.

McMillian told the witness “he did something bad and needed a sharper knife,” before taking a two knives from the kitchen and walking out a back door.

Officers spotted McMillian walking down South Maryland Street and took him into custody. Officers who had been at the shooting scene identified McMillian as the shooter.

A Blackhawks jersey, ankle monitor and two knives were found on the blocks near where McMillian was stopped, and the GPS locator on the ankle monitor showed McMillian was at the murder scene at the time of the shooting, McCord said.

Police also found two baby bottles in the back seat containing suspected codeine.

McCord said McMillian posed an “incredible, off-the-charts” threat to the community, noting he was on electronic monitoring at the time of the shooting and killed both a police officer and his own friend and nearly killed another cop while trying to escape.

“The level of danger that this defendant poses to every single person in his community, every single police officer… every single person he encounters, is incalculable,” McCord said.

After the hearing, sheriff’s officers led McMillian’s supporters out. Dozens of police officers formed a gantlet in the hallway as Martinez’s family walked out.

In the courthouse lobby, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara told reporters there is a need for stiffer penalties for gun crimes and mandatory minimums for offenders caught with switches.

Catanzara was joined by Chicago police Officer Carlos Yanez, whose partner, Ella French, was killed in a 2021 shooting that also began with a South Side traffic stop.

Yanez said police shootings are becoming “all too common.”

“It’s hard being in there. I’m trembling right now,” said Yanez, who lost an eye and was partially paralyzed in the 2021 shooting. “How many times have I been in that room for the same reason?”

Alleged shooter already facing charges

McMillian had been placed on electronic monitoring in Will County after a recent arrest in Chicago.

The Will County sheriff’s office issued a warrant for McMillian’s arrest last month, and he was charged with a felony, accused of trying to foil a drug test, according to court records and Ursitti. At the time, McMillian was facing felony cannabis charges.

The Chicago police arrested him Oct. 11 on the warrant, court records show. After he was released on electronic monitoring in the new case, Will County prosecutors sought to have him detained pending trial on the cannabis charges. That case was continued on Oct. 28.

McMillian previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm in May 2021, records show.

While held in jail in that case, he was hit with more felony charges stemming from a group attack on another inmate. He pleaded guilty to a battery charge that was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor on the same day as his other plea deal.

McMillian was sentenced to four years in prison in the shooting case and mandatory supervised release, records show. He was fined and ordered to pay court costs in the other case.

In ordering McMillian detained, Judge Dyer entered an order that Chicago police and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability not release records in the case.