Champaign felon last seen in Mahomet

By Daily Illini Staff Report

UPDATE: Dec. 1, 12:15 p.m.

According to the Champaign County Sheriff’s website, the standoff in Rantoul “ended via suicide” at 1:00 a.m. early December morning. 

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UPDATE: 3:55 

Police in Rantoul are currently working to convince Jacob K. Morrissey to surrender from an armed home invasion, according to The News-Gazette. SWAT teams have surrounded the house and Rantoul Police Chief Paul Farber says Morrissey is barricaded inside the home, located at the southwest corner of Clark and Maplewood Streets. Farber says the people who live inside the house are believed to be members of Morrissey’s family. Nearby homes are reported to have been evacuated as well as students from Eastlawn Elementary school.

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Morrissey is accused of entering a home on Chateau Drive in St. Joseph Sunday and firing a 12-gauge shotgun at the residents and wounding one man according to the News-Gazette. 

Police are currently searching for Jacob K. Morrissey who was last seen Monday morning in Mahomet, a suburb just northwest of Champaign.

Morrissey was issued a home invasion warrant after he entered a home in the 900 block of Chateau Drive in St. Joseph and shooting people in the home around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. An adult male who was struck is being treated at an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the police report.

Morrissey’s stolen 1994 tan Buick LeSabre was recovered by the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office in the Mahomet area. He is now believed to be driving a Green 1997 Ford truck — license plate number 1157428B — with duct tape on the back tailgate.

The University of Illinois Police Department is aware of the situation, said Pat Wade, UIPD spokesman.

Allen Jones, chief deputy of the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department, said Morrissey was last seen driving on Prarie Road in Mahomet around 9:30 a.m. 

“There is no reason to believe (Morrissey) would be down near campus, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility,” Jones said.

Wade said the last time a felon was on campus was during the spring 2015 semester when a fugitive from Indiana was found and arrested by campus police in the Undergraduate Library.

“The campus is pretty public and open, people pass by the area all the time,” Wade said. “But we’re really good at watching our property and area and making sure everything is safe.”

Morrissey is a 5-foot-9, 180-pound white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He was labeled “armed and dangerous” by the sheriff’s office, and anyone with further information is asked to call the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office.

Aaron Navarro contributed to this report

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