Attorneys in the Xandria Harris trial continue to put together a jury.

It will move into Wednesday as both sides have put together a 6-man, 6 woman jury.

On Tuesday, they selected one of five alternates with the four others to be picked Wednesday.

Opening statements are set for 10 a.m. Thursday. The trial is expected to take two to three weeks.

Harris is charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder and child endangerment that arose from a Dec. 29, 2021 shooting of two Bradley police officers.

Harris’ boyfriend, Darius Sullivan, shot and killed Bradley Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic and seriously wounded now-retired Sgt. Tyler Bailey.

They answered a call at Comfort Inn in Bradley about barking dogs left in a vehicle in the hotel’s parking lot.

Tuesday had several twists and turns.

The first dealt with Kankakee County Circuit Judge Kathy Bradshaw-Elliott dismissing 31 prospective jurors Monday.

Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe said he saw a Black woman juror raise her arm in the air, which is a sign of Black Power as the 45-member group entered the courtroom.

Harris is Black. The two officers white.

Rowe brought it to the attention of Bradshaw-Elliott when Monday’s afternoon session started.

Over the lunch break, Rowe viewed video footage from the courtroom’s multiple cameras.

It showed the action. Rowe had the image of the woman zoomed in on.

Harris’ attorney, Cierra Norris, argued that before dismissing all 31, they should have been questioned about what they saw.

“The reason why I make that record is because I do think that the entire dismissal was premature and done erroneously without the opportunity to question them individually and see if we could continue with members of that group,” Norris said.

Bradshaw-Elliott asked Norris: “Are you agreeing it occurred that the African-American woman looked like this?”

Bradshaw-Elliott put her arm in the air with a fist made.

“I agree with what I saw on video,” Norris said.

“And so we ask that we also be able to some way, somehow, I’m not sure, get the demographics of those 31 so that we can properly preserve the record to any facts and claims because we believe that with one fell swoop, multiple people in Ms. Harris’ demographic that matched her quite better than the 45 that we got [afterwards].”

Rowe argued the group of 31 was tainted by the action.

“We had 45 jurors in this room. One of those jurors very clearly, on video, put her fist up in the air. She was an African-American female,” Rowe said.

“The two African-American females seated right next to her looked and laughed about it, made notice of it, and it was done almost in the middle. The second row of the courtroom — I saw it. I saw all of it.”

When Tuesday’s afternoon session started, prosecutors explained that the 12th and final juror selected in the morning session was erroneously selected.

Prosecutors said they were asking the juror to be excused.

Norris argued that the three alternates picked as well should not be used to replace the juror.

Both sides agreed.

A new 12th juror was picked as well as one alternate.

Bradshaw-Elliott and the attorneys agreed to have the jurors left in the gallery come back Wednesday.

It did not sit well with several of them

“I’ve been here for two days, my butt is sore,” a Black male juror said.

A Hispanic female juror was excused after pleading that she has three brothers who are Chicago police officers.

“I am very sensitive to this issue,” she said.

Two women jurors asked if they could just be questioned.

That didn’t sit well with another woman juror.

“I’ve been sitting here in this courthouse since 8:30 this morning. I haven’t eaten. I’ll come back Wednesday,” she said.

In the end, Bradshaw-Elliott said they would come back Wednesday.