Carla Redd is currently the Rockford police Chief. She has been a Rockford police officer since March 1998.
Before becoming Chief, Redd then an assistant deputy chief for the Rockford police department was involved in a shooting while off duty on January 20th, 2019.
The initial allegations were that RPD officers told by Redd that she was parked on 8th street near her husband’s church, Living Faith Tabernacle, facing south toward fifth street at around 6:30pm.
Carla was in her black 2004 Yukon. Her husband, Ronald Miller, was inside the church to turn the heat off. Temperatures at the time were in the single digits and it had snowed pretty heavily over the weekend.
The two drove separately to the church. Ronald was in his red Sierra pick up truck that he said was parked in front of the Yukon while he went inside the church.
In Redd’s account she said that a blue station wagon pulled up next to her. She alleged that two men asked her “where the hoes at?”. She told RPD officer Gustavo Lopez that this comment made her uncomfortable so she took out her off duty gun and placed it on her lap.
Redd said she attempted to do a U Turn in front of the blue station wagon when it crashed into her at a high rate of speed causing heavy front end damage. While still in her Yukon, she fired two shots into the station wagon causing the driver to exit and run from the car. The passenger transferred over and was able to get around Redd’s Yukon and continued driving south on 8th street. Redd followed behind all the way until the station wagon drove to 7th ave before realizing it was a dead end.
The station wagon, in Redd’s account, pulled into a drive way and began driving back towards 8th street. Redd said she believed the vehicle was going to crash into her, so she moved her vehicle out of the way. From there, she lost sight of the station wagon and returned to church. In her initial story, the only mention of her husband’s (Ronald Miller) actions was that she was meeting him there.
Remember when Carla Redd said she took out her off duty gun? Well, that is not the gun she turned over to the investigators. Redd gave the investigators her department issued .40 Smith and Wesson loaded with hollow points. Remember when she said she shot twice into the car? A review of the gun revealed that it was loaded with hollow points. Only one bullet was missing.
It is important to note that at time of the shooting Carla Redd is not some rookie police officer. A near twenty year RPD veteran that was the Assistant Deputy chief. Is it realistic to maintain the belief that an experienced police officer was not able to get the plate numbers of the car, the make or model of the vehicle, lost a heavily damaged station wagon in a pursuit, and didn’t know how many shots or what gun she fired?
Ronald Miller told a different account to Rockford police officer Kyle Robertson.
Miller said he and Redd arrived at the church and parked across the street from the church on 8th street facing south towards 5th ave. The Sierra was parked ahead of Redd’s Yukon. As he walked into the church he saw a blue or green station wagon parked on the street nearby.
He said that when he exited the church and began walking to his red Sierra pickup truck he saw a man on foot talking to C.R. through the driver’s side door. He had told officers he saw the blue station wagon parked somewhere north of the Yukon.
Miller said as he got into his car and he heard Redd yell “Turn around!”. For an unexplained reason, Miller believed she was telling him to turn around. She got in his truck and drove forward into the intersection of 8th and 5th to do a U turn.
While in the u-turn he said he heard what he thought was one shot from Redd. He wasn’t sure of exactly what happened but he had seen the man who was standing next to Redd’s Yukon began running. Miller completed the u turn so he was parked in front of the church facing north on 8th street. He got out of his truck with his gun in hand. From there, in Miller’s account, the blue station wagon that was parked in the area drove south on 8th street towards Ronald Miller. He told Robertson that he believed the station wagon was going to ram him, so he fired two shots into the car.
The station wagon continued to drive south on 8th but Miller lost sight of it when he saw a man come running from behind the church and head south towards 5th ave. Miller briefly chased the man east on 5th avenue before deciding to return to his vehicle.
Some time later RPD officer Kyle Robertson arrived to see Miller standing near the pick up. It was revealed that in the period of time he was waiting for police to arrive Miller called 911 and indicated that Carla Redd had been involved in some type of fight.
Miller told Robertson that he wasn’t sure where Redd went but he guessed east on 5th avenue.
Miller’s story and Redd’s story simply do not add up. There is no mention of the crash in Miller’s statement nor any damage to the station wagon. Miller, whose car was supposedly parked in front of Redd’s, would have been able to tell the difference on whether he seen a man on foot talk to his wife, or a station wagon with multiple individuals in it. He would have had to walk in front of the station wagon, or the man on foot.
Furthermore, if both stories are to be believed, why didn’t they just leave? If Ronald Miller was getting in his car and turned it on, Carla Redd who was supposedly in her Yukon immediately behind the pickup, would have seen this. In order for her to do a u turn, she would have had to wait for him to pull out, then followed behind him.
What reason is the for both of them
to do a u turn at the exact same time if the heat was turned off and Redd was allegedly being harassed?
When compared to each other, it is not possible for the shooting to have taken place as told by Ronald Miller and Carla Redd.
The station wagon would have had to crash into Redd’s Yukon. Get shot by Carla Redd. The driver ran from the station wagon. The passenger transferred seats, backed up and drove around Redd’s Yukon, after passing the Yukon, avoided the pick up truck on the other side of the road then got shot at by Miller.
All this happens and neither Redd nor Miller were able to identify the make and model of the car. Quite frankly, their stories do not match up with each others. Even Ronald Miller telling police that he believed Redd went east down 5th avenue doesn’t make sense. Miller is the one who ran down 5th after the man he seen talking to Carla Redd. If Redd had went that direction, she surely would’ve caught the man on foot and passed Ronald Miller. He knew or should have known that she didn’t go that direction.
More and more Rockford police officers arrived on the scene and they began looking for the man on foot as well as taking down potential witnesses.
It was later revealed that a Witness called 911 shortly after the shooting. They told dispatchers they were witness to a shooting and requested to speak to a police officer. The Witness was told to wait for an officer to come speak to them. Eventually, they took matters into their own hands and flagged down Rockford police officer Kevin Case and gave their account.
The Witness told RPD officers that he was parked in his driveway with a clear view of the intersection of 8th street and 5th avenue. They heard shouting but were unable to make out what was being said. Seconds later, they saw a pickup truck come north up 8th street. The truck pulled up in front of the station wagon and Yukon, which were both parked facing west on 5th avenue, at least partially blocking the road.
The Witness saw a man get out of the pick up truck. The next thing they heard was a series of shots being fired. Concerned for their safety, the Witness attempted to leave the area by driving south on 8th street. Shortly after pulling out they saw the station wagon driving behind them. In an attempt to get away, they turned west onto 6th ave and circled the block to return home. On their way home they did not see the dark SUV but the man standing with something in his hand next to the pick up truck was still there.
Other residents in the area gave more details to the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force investigators. None of the residents told investigators that they saw the shooting, but a few described hearing a series of shots followed by a final single shot. The residents that heard the shots also said they heard shouting before, but only one was close enough to make out what was said. This Resident told investigators they heard a woman’s voice yelling “No! You can’t do it! No! Don’t do it!” The next thing they heard was a series of shots.
Further evidence would reveal that the station wagon did not have “heavy front end damage” as described by Redd. There was minor paint transfer, but the main damage was the bullet holes.
With all the statements compared with each other, the statements from Redd and Miller not matching up, the Witness and the Residents account of the shooting, the gun Redd gave investigators not being the same gun Redd told officers she used in the shooting, no evidence of a crash between the Yukon and the station wagon, it all creates a reasonable doubt on the State’s account of the shooting.
A reasonable conclusion would find at best, Carla Redd did not fire the first series of shots like she described. At worst, she and the integrity task force conspired together to manufacture a story that told lies of a “high speed crash” to coverup the fact that Ronald Miller fired all of the shots into the station wagon.
Redd remained on duty over the course of the investigation. A month removed from the shooting, while the investigation was still ongoing, channel 13 WREX ran a “inspiring 815” news story on Carla Redd. For the media, the story of what happened on January 20th 2019 was already justified. With no evidence whatsoever, Carla Redd, in the eyes of the media, was painted as a “victim of a vehicular assault” and a hero to Rockford.
Come June of 2019 the Integrity Task Force ruled the shooting justified.
This was the second Rockford police shooting in three weeks, having previously killed Kerry Blake on December 30th, 2018.
It was the seventeenth case investigated and justified by the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force and the 19th deadly force incident in the 2010’s.
It was the sixth deadly force incident with Tom McNamara in mayoral office.