Wheeling man gets 57 years for shooting Illinois State Police trooper

A Wheeling man has been sentenced to 57 years in prison for shooting an Illinois State Trooper who was helping execute a search warrant at his northwest suburban home in 2019, officials announced Saturday.

Volodymyr Dragan, 46, had been convicted of attempted murder of the trooper and aggravated unlawful restraint of another officer for the Aug. 15, 2019, encounter, according to a statement from the Illinois State Police.

Officers were serving the warrant following a traffic stop on Interstate 294 in which Dragan held a trooper at gunpoint, state police said.

At the Wheeling residence, Dragan fired shots from inside, hitting a trooper through the forearm. The wound initially was considered life-threatening, but the trooper — 32 at the time — later recovered and has since returned to duty.

Dragan, who was arrested at the scene, had been held without bail at Cook County Jail since then.

“Due to the tireless efforts of the ISP, our law enforcement partners and the assistant state’s attorneys in this case, this dangerous individual has been brought to justice,” state police Director Brendan Kelly said in the statement. “The ISP appreciates the court’s strong sentence as we continue our fight to make Illinois safer, not just for members of law enforcement, but for every resident of Illinois.”