‘The level of danger … is without measure’: Man accused of killing CPD officer Enrique Martínez ordered detained

Chicago police Officer Enrique Martínez and his partner responded to a block in the South Side’s East Chatham neighborhood on Monday evening for what eventually turned out to be a call with false information.

But while in the area, prosecutors said, the officers saw a Ford Escape doubled-parked in the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue and made a fateful traffic stop that devolved into stunning violence.

In the passenger seat of the vehicle, Darion C. McMillian, 23, of Harvey, grabbed a weapon outfitted to be a “fully automatic machine gun,” prosecutors said Thursday, even as the police officers yelled for him to stop reaching toward his bag. McMillian allegedly fired, fatally striking Martinez and the 23-year-old driver sitting next to him.

Cook County Judge Deidre Dyer ordered McMillian detained while awaiting trial during a crowded and emotional hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

McMillian is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree murder of a police officer, attempted murder of a police officer, residential burglary, unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. Authorities said McMillian pushed his deceased companion of the car after the officer was shot, jumped into the driver’s seat, reversed and injured another police officer, said Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord.

“The level of danger this person poses to every single person in this community … is without measure,” McCord said.

Audible sobs could be heard as deputies brought McMillian into the courtroom which was jam-packed with police officers and family members of the defendant and victims. The first-floor courtroom reached capacity before McMillian’s case was called. About two dozen more Chicago police officers waited outside the courtroom as the case was heard.

Among those in the courtroom were former CPD officer Carlos Yanez, wounded in a 2021 West Englewood shooting that left his partner, Ella French, dead. Several officers assigned to the CPD Gresham District (6th), where the shooting occurred Monday, could be seen wiping tears from their eyes as McCord recounted the allegations against McMillian.

When ordering him detained, Dyer noted that McMillian was held on electronic monitoring in Will County for a pending drug case. After shooting and killing Martínez, prosecutors had alleged, McMillian ran into a nearby residence and tried to cut off his ankle bracelet.

“You are on electronic monitoring for something far less serious than murder and you were not complying with it, not by a longshot,” Dyer said.

On Monday night, the police officers approached the Ford Escape, which was occupied by three people, just before 8 p.m., McCord said. One of the passengers was asleep in the back seat, she said, while McMillian was in the front passenger seat.

McMillian placed a backpack and the floor and began reaching down, as the officers ordered him to show his hands, she said. But, ignoring the officers, McMillian took out a weapon outfitted with an automatic switch and fired, she alleged.

Martínez collapsed on the street, McCord said, and the man in the driver’s seat was killed. After that, she said, McMillian tried to make his escape.

“The defendant pushes his shot friend out of the car and gets into the driver’s seat,” McCord said.

Another officer grabbed McMillian and tried to pull him out of the vehicle, but McMillian reversed, speeding away with the door open, injuring the office, she said. McMillian hit parked cars and eventually got out and ran away, McCord said. He entered a home and tried to cut off his monitor, she said.

He told a witness in the residence that he “did something bad and needed sharper knife,” McCord said.

Officers later arrested McMillian when they spotted him walking, she said. Officers at the scene identified him, and the electronic monitoring GPS placed him at the scene.

McMillian’s public defender argued against detention, and said he is a lifelong resident of Illinois and had been working for his father.

Martínez was just shy of three years on the force.

“Officer Martínez was killed by the violence he worked to stop,” Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling said during a news conference Wednesday announcing the charges. “In his final moments, he protected our city above all else. It’s our duty and our mission to carry on the work that Officer Martínez provided the night that he lost his life.”

In addition to two pending felony drug cases in Will County, McMillian served four years in prison for a 2019 shooting that injured another male.

McCord said McMillian’s record also included a misdemeanor battery charged while he was incarcerated in Will County, as well as another misdemeanor for fleeing police in DuPage County.

After the hearing, Yanez, who himself lived through a shooting, told reporters it was “heartbreaking having to go through this all over again.”

“It’s just a shame that the city’s going through this. Something needs to change,” he said.

Martinez’s family declined to speak with reporters. They were escorted in and out of the courtroom by CPD officers and officials from the Fraternal Order of Police, the rank-and-file CPD officers’ union. Seated next to members of Martinez’s family were relatives of slain CPD officer Luis Huesca, shot and killed while returning home from work earlier this year.

Addressing reporters after McMillian was ordered detained, FOP President John Catanzara noted that McMillian had only recently gotten off parole in the 2019 Will County shooting.

“This piece of scum wasn’t even out 100 days, released from IDOC custody, even while starting mob action inside prison on a felony, and here we are with one of our dead officers,” he said. “Callous enough to kill his own associate and shove him out of the car like a dead piece of meat, that’s what we have wandering the street.

Catanzara and Yanez called for mandatory 10-year prison sentences for those found to be in possession of a gun with a conversion device — a “switch” — and 20-year sentences for those who pull the trigger.