While on duty in Lake County on March 30, State Trooper Gerald Wayne Ellis was killed in the line of duty. Trooper Ellis deliberately collided with a wrong-way driver on Interstate 94 in Green Oaks, Illinois, thereby saving a civilian family from harm. Trooper Ellis is survived by his wife and two daughters.
The Illinois State Police Memorial Park in Springfield contains an inscribed list of names of fallen members of this branch of State law enforcement. Trooper Ellis’s name was added to the memorial in a ceremony held on Wednesday, August 7.