Sheriff honors 2 La Salle officers for help in capturing Sheridan shooting suspect

La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton thanked two La Salle police officers for their work apprehending a suspect following the shooting in Sheridan last Wednesday.

“A horrific incident occurred up in Sheridan as two wonderful folks were viciously murdered by an individual and their daughter’s house was attacked by the same individual a short time later,” Templeton said.

After searching for the suspect for several hours, Templeton reached out to the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System to ask for assistance from surrounding area officers.

The request was put out for the help of 20 additional officers and among those that responded were La Salle officers Luke Radtke and Tyler Slimko.

The La Salle officers, while arriving on location, to offer whatever help they could to the hunt for the suspect, spotted a suspicious man in a field.

Templeton said at 6:44 a.m. Wednesday they received a radio call the two officers took a suspect into custody. The suspect was spotted south of Sheridan and was ordered out of the field as they called for backup.

Templeton was proud of all of the officers’ contributions to apprehending the suspect and was thankful despite the horrible events that happened, the criminal process can take its course.

“It’s true that there’s nothing that we can do, as we stand here today or as we stood there that night, to bring those two people back to their families,” Templeton said. “What we can do and what the officers did do, is start our criminal justice process and that will continue until there is justice for the Barnes family.”

After the suspect was taken into custody, it was found he was armed with a loaded 9 mm handgun, currently a part of the ongoing investigation.

Templeton presented the two officers with a letter Monday at La Salle’s City Council meeting thanking them for taking a dangerous and armed suspect off the streets.

Mayor Jeff Grove echoed Templeton’s comments thanking the officers for going above and beyond their call of duty to assist in the capture of the suspect.

“These officers are the bread and butter and the backbone of our community,” Grove said. “They keep us safe and keep things from escalating and we appreciate the partnership with the county and look forward to continuing it. We are very proud of those guys.”

Both Grove and Templeton were appreciative of the mutual respect and cooperation many surrounding area, county and state police departments continue to have with each other, they said.