A 22-year veteran of the Delmar (Delaware) Police Department has been declared clinically dead after he was attacked over the weekend while responding to a 911 call.
Cpl. Keith Heacook was removed from life support after suffering severe head injuries sustained in the line of duty, according to Police Chief Ivan Barkley.
The Delaware State Police said a 911 call came in about 5:15 Sunday morning, and the caller said one of the occupants — later identified as Randon Wilkerson, 30 — was being disorderly, fighting with other residents of the house and destroying items inside the residence. Another 911 call came in from a neighbor across the street, stating he and his wife had been assaulted by a man. The caller then said the assailant was no longer at his house.
Heacook, according to the agency, responded to the house of the initial call and got into a fight with Wilkerson. Dispatchers began checking on Heacook, the agency said, and received no response. More officers were dispatched and a Delaware state trooper arrived on scene to find Heacook unconscious inside the residence, state police said.
Heacook was first taken to a local hospital and then to a Baltimore trauma unit with significant head injuries.
State police also said a separate assault involved an elderly couple across the street. Wilkerson allegedly knocked on the back door of the residence and was met by the 73-year-old man, whom he then allegedly struck numerous times with a glass object. Wilkerson then, police said, repeatedly assaulted a 76-year-old woman with the same object before fleeing. Both victims sustained significant injury and were transported by ambulance to area hospitals. The woman was later transported to the same Baltimore trauma unit as Heacook.
According to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, as reported by WDOC, charges against Wilkerson will now be upgraded to include murder.
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