Authorities have identified a 15-year-old boy as the suspect fatally shot Tuesday by Bloomington Police on the city's southeast side.
Cole L. M. Turner of Normal died from multiple gunshot wounds, the McLean County coroner's office said Wednesday. Toxicology studies are pending.
Bloomington Police say officers responded to a report of an armed subject in the 700 block of Fairmont Drive at around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday. Officers encountered Turner after arriving on scene, police said. An officer or officers fired their weapons, hitting Turner while he was behind a nearby apartment building at 806 Arcadia Drive, authorities said.
Life-saving measures were attempted, police said. Turner was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were injured.
The statement from Bloomington Police on Tuesday night did not explain what else preceded the shooting. As is common practice with police use of deadly force, Illinois State Police have been called in to conduct an independent investigation of what happened.
Turner was enrolled and had been attending Regional Alternative School [RAS] in Bloomington since the beginning of the school year, according to Mark Jontry, Regional Superintendent for DeWitt, Livingston, Logan and McLean counties.
"The entire RAS family is saddened by his passing and offer condolences to his family and friends," Jontry said in a statement, adding the school has made additional counselors available to students and staff and will continue to do so throughout the week.
Turner, when he was 13, was the subject of a missing/juvenile runaway alert from Normal Police in May 2023. He was located that same day.
It was the first fatal police shooting in Bloomington-Normal since 2021, and the first in McLean County overall in about a year.
