Wheeling man who shot Illinois trooper sentenced to 57 years in prison
A Wheeling man who shot an Illinois State Police trooper in the forearm nearly three years ago was sentenced to 57 years in prison Friday.
Volodymyr Dragan, 46, was convicted in March of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated assault.
"We have here a defendant who has blatant disregard for the authority of the police," Cook County Judge Joseph Cataldo said in pronouncing the sentence. "He is a dangerous man with no respect for authority, no respect for the police and no respect for human life."
Dragan was driving his motorcycle 84 mph in a 60 mph zone on the Tri-State Tollway near Glenview when an Illinois State Police trooper stopped him about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 15, 2019. While seated in the back seat of the squad car, prosecutors say Dragan pulled out his handgun, directed it at the trooper and said, "This is serious. You are not the boss here." He then drove off on his motorcycle.
Police and SWAT team members tracked him to his home on the 400 block of Hickory Drive, where Dragan remained for hours, firing at and striking another state trooper in the arm. Fellow officers applied a tourniquet to the arm of the wounded trooper, who was treated and released, authorities said.
Dragan fled his home after police used a battering ram mounted on the front of a truck to break into his townhouse.
Testifying on behalf of prosecutors, the trooper who pulled Dragan over for speeding and failed to retrieve Dragan's handgun apologized for his lack of judgment and expressed remorse for his actions. An Illinois State Police master sergeant read a statement from the wounded trooper who said his family's daily admonition to "be safe" has "a different meaning now."
"It is not lost on me how fortunate I am and how all this could have been different," wrote the trooper, who requested that Cataldo impose the harshest penalty on Dragan who was responsible for "a dangerous situation that could have ended more tragically."
"We all went home. You went to jail. And prison is where you should spend the rest of your life," the trooper wrote.
Asking for the minimum sentence, Cook County Assistant Public Defender Vincent Colucci said his client didn't intend to kill anyone and the circumstances that placed him in this position aren't likely to recur.
"It was a perfect storm of mental illness, mistakes and a rash decision that won't happen again," Colucci said.
Dragan apologized to the injured trooper and his family.
He received credit for 1,065 days in custody and must serve at least 85% of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.