There is only one word to describe the first day of testimony in the trial for the man charged with the death of Knox County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nicholas Weist, and that word is traumatic. Daylon Richardson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the vehicle he was driving struck and killed Deputy Weist while Richardson was fleeing from Galesburg Police Officers on April 29, 2022. Family, friends, and coworkers were in the courtroom to support State’s Attorney Catherine Runty as she pleaded her case and provided evidence in the case against Daylon Richardson to the Jury.
Testimony today included dash cam footage, body cam footage, radio broadcasts, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) camera footage and a still photo, and stipulation testimony. The video evidence today was very graphic and heartbreaking to the family and friends in the courtroom that Deputy Weist left behind. We saw the vehicle hit Deputy Weist on the dash cam footage from his police vehicle. We saw Officer Jared Tapscott put Daylon Richardson in handcuffs, turn him over to Officer Semington, and then race over to Deputy Weist, who was motionless on the ground, shake him, and tell him to wake up. We heard Deputy Weist from the radio broadcast when he asked his Patrol Sergeant on that day, Lieutenant Carl Kraemer, if spike sticks were authorized to disable the suspect vehicle instead of ending his shift and going home to Viola.
I listened to the scanner traffic that morning and heard Galesburg Police Officer Jared Tapscott yell “Officer Down” over and over. You could hear the pain in his voice as he asked for life flight and began life-saving measures on Deputy Weist, but it was too late. Deputy Weist was declared deceased at the scene by Henry County Coroner Melissa Watkins. Officer Tapscott said he thought the suspect vehicle had hit the stop sticks and wrecked out, so he told his dispatch, “Good Spike. Good Spike. Good Spike.”. Officer Tapscott said the stop sticks were in the northbound lane, the vehicle was wrecked in the west ditch, and he observed a person on the ground with a police vest. Officer Tapscott drove into the field to catch the suspect, who was running in the field. Officer Tapscott said he ran to provide aid to the “fallen officer,” Deputy Nicholas Weist. After additional officers arrived, Officer Tapscott said he took a step back and “took a breath.” The 13-minute pursuit felt like a lifetime watching it from dash cam footage from Officer Tapscott’s police vehicle.
A big detail we learned today was that Deputy Nicholas Weist did not sign off from his shift that morning. His regular work shift is from 10 PM to 8 AM, and Deputy Weist was on his way home at the end of his shift when the call for a person with a gun in Galesburg was broadcast from Knox County dispatch. While Deputy Weist asked Lieutenant Kraemer about stop sticks, Lieutenant Kraemer said he had the authority to hold deputies over their shifts and that he authorized Deputy Weist to intercept the suspect vehicle on Highway 150 and deploy stop sticks. You hear Deputy Weist tell Knox County dispatch that he is in place and deploying stop sticks, but you don’t hear him again, and Knox 936 doesn’t respond to a status check from dispatch.
It was hard to tell for certain from the dash cam footage from Deputy Weist’s patrol vehicle if the suspect vehicle hit the stop sticks or not. The vehicle appeared to be sliding seconds before striking and killing Deputy Nicholas Weist. Deputy Weist didn’t even have the opportunity to get out of the way of the vehicle. It doesn’t appear that Daylon Richardson was swerving towards Deputy Weist, it appears that he had lost control of the vehicle. However, the footage was from a narrow angle because it was from the dash cam, and it happened at a high rate of speed.
