EXECUTION OF POPE CO. MANHUNT QUESTIONED

POPE CO. – Weeks after the death of Dracy Clint Pendleton, 34, of Bellflower, Illinois in Champaign County, many Pope County residents are at a loss as to what to think of what happened in their peaceful location in the Shawnee National Forest, after the shootout that ended a week’s worth of anxiety and fear.

Unfortunately, much of that anxiety and fear was caused, not by the young man who had spent some time in the hills of the Forest in Pope years ago living off the land…but by those who were after him: The state and federal authorities.

Not the type to just sit back and let the authorities tell them what happened when they saw with their own eyes that it did NOT, many locals in and around Eddyville, on the edge of all the action on Sunday, May 15, have been posing questions that have brought about disturbing answers regarding the activity of Illinois State Police and federal investigators.

And as usual, ISP has not been forthcoming about explaining much of anything, offering little that hasn’t been part of the “official story” of how, and more importantly, why Clint Pendleton had to die.

The developing situation came to the public’s conscience when a press release from the Illinois State Police was issued shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 8.

It didn’t end when at about noon on the 15th, Pendleton was dead following an hours-long exchange of gunfire at an abandoned farmhouse just off Eddyville Blacktop, not far from Sulphur Springs Missionary Baptist Church.

The timeline in the “official” story as issued by ISP, says locals, doesn’t match up with what they saw and heard with their own eyes and ears, assertions that have caused a wall of divide between the downstate factions who support what the authorities did and those who question it.

However, actions coming to light on the part of some of the state personnel who were supposed to be searching for the “armed and dangerous” Pendleton have raised even more questions – and considerable ire – of many in and around Pope County.

These will be featured in this timeline of events that is going to be presented chronologically for purposes of best understanding what is known of what happened.

The official story: The intro

The official story is best presented by the May 25 press release issued by Village of Mahomet Police Chief Michael L. Metzler regarding the incidents leading up to Pendleton’s flight from that village.

It is presented here in its entirety, with an assessment to follow, which includes information discovered about certain matters contained within the release.

***

The Champaign County Multi-Jurisdictional Investigative Team continues to investigate the events surrounding the May 7, 2016 shooting of Mahomet police officer Jeremy Scharlow. The Team is conducting a thorough, exhaustive investigation of the events, gathering reports of interviews and the collection of evidence. When the process is complete, a comprehensive report will be released.

In the interim, the lack of information provided by those of us in authority has created a void that is being filled with rumor and misinformation. This release is being prepared to clarify the basic chain of events of the evening of May 7. This release includes the basic facts as they are known by me at this time.

At approximately 10:37 p.m., Mahomet police officer Ryan Rich observed a truck entering town on Oak Street. Rich’s attention was drawn to the vehicle because it did not have illuminated taillights. Rich initiated a traffic stop. The truck pulled over near Walnut and Sangamon.

The driver of the truck was identified as Dracy Clint Pendleton. Mr. Pendleton became irate during the course of the traffic stop.

While Rich was writing two warnings for the minor traffic infractions, another truck pulled up to the stop and sat and watched the officer. The second truck was a white Toyota. It was later learned that the white truck was driven by Kyle Dollahon, Pendleton’s half-brother.

After Rich issued two written warnings, one for the tail light violation and one for failing to notify the Secretary of State of a change of address, he released Pendleton from the stop. The stop ended at approximately 10:50 p.m. Rich last saw Pendleton’s truck eastbound on Sangamon from Walnut, approximately three blocks from 504 S. Vine.

Rich last saw the white truck driven by Kyle Dollahon, heading west toward Division.

Rich’s in-car dash camera recorded the video of the stop. The audio did not function properly.

Ofc. (Jeremey) Scharlow did not go to Rich’s traffic stop. At about 10:40 p.m., Scharlow left the area of the gas station at Oak and Lombard heading back to the police department for the end of his shift. As he travelled west on Oak Street, Scharlow observed a white truck turn off of Division onto Oak Street. The truck’s headlights were not illuminated. Scharlow passed the truck, going in the opposite direction, in front of the police department. Scharlow did a U-turn in order to address the lack of headlights. By the time Scharlow caught up with the truck, it had pulled into the driveway at 504 S. Vine.

Scharlow stopped his squad car just south of the driveway, intending to let the driver of the truck know his headlights were not working. With the truck and driver presumably off the road and out of traffic, Scharlow intended only to inform the driver. He did not call in a stop, nor did he activate his emergency lights, or his in-car camera.

Scharlow saw a white male in the driveway. The male immediately began screaming epithets at Scharlow, by name, and charging Scharlow’s squad car. Before Scharlow could get out of his car, the male, later identified as Dracy Clint Pendleton, attacked Scharlow, striking him multiple times in the head with his fists.

Scharlow was able to make his way out of his car. While fending off blows with one arm, Scharlow pulled his TASER and deployed it in the general direction of Pendleton’s chest. The TASER did not have the desired effect. Scharlow then used a technique known as a “drive stun” (likely “dry stun,” although it was presented as “drive” in the text – ed.), trying to create distance from Pendleton by pushing the TASER into his chest.

Pendleton then pulled a small, semi-automatic pistol from his pocket, took a distinct shooter’s stance and began firing. Scharlow returned fire.

Pendleton retreated to the house at 504 S. Vine, as Scharlow sought cover behind his squad car. Scharlow recognized he had been shot in the arm and pulled back farther behind a four-plex apartment building across the street and southwest of 504 S. Vine.

Pendleton reappeared, from within the house, this time armed with a long rifle. He began firing on Scharlow’s squad car.

Ofc. Rebecca Bragg was arriving for her shift and heard gunfire. She saw Scharlow firing his gun. From her vantage point of the police department parking lot, Bragg could not see at whom Scharlow was firing. She notified METCAD of the shots fired at approximately 10:53 p.m.

Bragg recognizes that Scharlow has been shot and takes action to get him to cover and evaluate his injuries.

Rich arrived at the police department after hearing the call of shots fired. He deployed near the police garage at Sangamon and Center, directly south of the police department parking lot.

At approximately 10:57 p.m., the officers heard a loud engine from the area of 504 S. Vine. They then heard a large crash and saw Sharlow’s squad car bounce as it was struck. A truck was seen leaving southbound on Vine and then turn west of Sangamon. As the truck passed the police department garage, Rich recognized it was the same truck previously driven by Dracy Clint Pendleton.

Rich ran to his squad car in an attempt to go after the truck. He was not able to regain visual contact with the truck.

The truck was later discovered at Mid-America Sand & Gravel and the manhunt for Pendleton began.

After assessing Scharlow’s injuries, Bragg made the decision to evacuate Scharlow from the scene to obtain medical assistance. She drove him to Cornbelt Fire Department. There, Cornbelt and Carle Ambulance personnel treated Scharlow, ultimately transporting him to Carle Hospital.

Scharlow did not know the identity of his attacker until he was shown a photograph in the emergency department for identification purposes. He recognized Pendleton as someone he had dealt with on another occasion.

Scharlow’s previous contact with Pendleton occurred in August 2013. Scharlow responded to a fight in progress at a local gas station. Upon his arrival, one of the involved parties had already left. According to the report, a subject, later identified as Dracy Clint Pendleton, had approached a black male and began yelling racially charged epithets. The two exchanged heated words and a bystander called the police.

Scharlow obtained a license plate number for the offending party. It was registered to Pendleton. Scharlow went to Pendleton’s address to follow up on the report. Upon seeing Scharlow walking toward the residence, Pendleton balled his fists, began yelling and aggressively approached Scharlow. Believing Pendleton was about to attack, Scharlow pointed his TASER at Pendleton and ordered him to his knees until a backup officer arrived.

Pendleton was ultimately arrested for Aggravated Assault and Disorderly Conduct.

Again the purpose of this release is to clarify the basic events of May 7 and to dispel the misinformation that is being repeated in the community and the media.

***

Unfortunately, Metzler’s release didn’t clarify the Illinois State Police response to the shooting…which proved fatal for one woman, and which fatality, many say, is what cause the level of the manhunt to reach the (many say unnecessary) intensity it ultimately did.

More than fifty miles away, an Illinois State Police trooper, age 53 (and whose name has yet to be released, despite Disclosure’s attempts to learn it in the ensuing weeks) in Decatur, in response to the information that Pendleton was likely headed out to Interstate 72, responded by heading out to the interstate himself.

Traveling westbound on Harrison Avenue in Decatur was Kelley E. Wilson, a 26-year-old mother of two, herself of Decatur.

As she approached the intersection of Oakland Avenue, the trooper’s Chevy Caprice squad car was traveling northbound on Oakland; reports indicate that he had emergency lights and sirens activated “to intercept a suspect who shot a police officer in Mahomet and was last seen heading southbound on Illinois Route 47 toward Interstate 72.”

As the police vehicle approached the intersection of Harrison Avenue, Wilson’s 2003 Honda Odyssey pulled into the intersection, turning southbound on Oakland Avenue…and into the path of the trooper’s car.

The trooper was unable to avoid contact with Wilson’s vehicle and struck the driver’s side of it, causing extensive damage to both vehicles and injuries to both drivers, despite seatbelts and airbags having been deployed.

The trooper was transported to an unspecified area hospital with unspecified “serious injuries.”

Wilson was transported to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.

This whole thing occurred literally minutes after the situation emerged in Mahomet: At 11:02 p.m. Saturday, May 7.

First official word on Pendleton comes minutes after fatality announcement

The press release about the death of the young mother from Decatur was issued to media at 1:50 p.m. on Sunday, May 8.

The press release about Pendleton being “wanted – armed and dangerous – for attempted murder of a police officer” came two minutes later.

ISP gave a simplified version of what Metzler would later elaborate upon: They stated that at approximately 10:45 p.m., “a Mahomet Police Officer was involved in a shooting with Dracy ‘Clint’ Pendleton. The officer and Pendleton exchanged gunfire and Pendleton fled the scene. The officer was shot in the arm and it is believed Pendleton received wounds (possibly a gunshot) during the confrontation, but it is unknown to what degree. Pendleton may seek treatment for his injuries at a medical facility.”

The presser said that the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office had issued an arrest warrant for Pendleton charging him with Attempted Murder of a Police Officer. While they stated that the white GMC pickup he was driving was stolen, there was no mention of a charge of Conversion or Vehicle Theft (later information coming in indicated that Pendleton had actually gone to acquaintances of his who owned the truck, giving them a false story about why he needed to “borrow” the truck, resulting in his fleeing the Mahomet/Champaign area in it. Whether it was ever really considered legally “stolen” or not remains at issue.)

The route of escape

What happened between that time and when it first became known that Pendleton might be in Pope County is a matter of complete speculation.

With the most direct route being taken (Interstate 57 down to Interstate 24, then a cut over from 24 to Highway 147, then Highway 145), it takes three and a half hours to get to the Eddyville area. Other indirect routes, such as Illinois Route 45 (which also runs nearly the entire length north to south), take nearly four hours, primarily because of the speed limits and slowdowns through small towns on the way.

With a major metropolitan-area force like Champaign’s (the third-largest metropolitan area in the state behind Chicago and the Metro-East/St. Louis area) behind the release and dissemination of Pendleton’s all-points-bulletin “wanted” notice, it’s nearly inconceivable that the man could have escaped the area – in a stolen vehicle, no less – unnoticed.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

More than 12 hours after Pendleton eluded the dragnet – if in fact there ever really was one – ISP finally issued releases that he was wanted for attempted murder of a police officer.

Elder Pendleton gives input

During this time, said Pendleton’s father (also named Dracy Clint Pendleton) who spoke with Disclosure a couple of weeks after his son’s death, the younger Pendleton was under the impression that the police officer at whom he’d shot had died.

“When he got down there, and went back to that guy who owned the cabin he’d stayed in years ago, he knew he was a dead man, he told the guy, because he said ‘I killed a cop,’” the elder Pendleton told Disclosure on Friday, May 27.

Despite being very candid about his son and the incidents surrounding the younger Pendleton’s death, the elder Pendleton declined to give the name of the man who owned the cabin in Pope County even at this point.

“But the cops talked to him for hours” after the younger Pendleton left and the man notified authorities that he’d been there, the elder Pendleton said.

How the younger Pendleton came to be in Pope

The elder Pendleton explained how his son had come to be in Pope County more than four years ago.

His son’s excursion, Pendleton said, was based on “Clint just wanting to see if he could live off the woods.

“He went down there and oversaw the property. He grew vegetables, he did canning; he fished, he hunted,” the elder Pendleton said. “It was three to five miles back off a main road, where this cabin place was; you have to have a special permit to be there just because it’s in the Shawnee National Forest. If a tree fell you couldn’t cut it; if a washout made a hole, you couldn’t fill it. So three miles weaving around to the place before getting there; it was rough. He had solar panels on it; he had to get water from a spring. He had to wash his clothes in a bucket.”

The younger Pendleton was described multiple times in the wake of the May 7 incident as a “survivalist,” a description that the elder Pendleton indicated was apt. The problem, many who knew Clint Pendleton said, with that descriptive was that the authorities seemed to be using it in strictly a negative connotation, as if Pendleton had created this place in Pope as a bolt-hole for just such an occasion as Clint Pendleton trying to kill a cop, then escaping from the scene to an uninhabitable location where only he knew how to get by.

Unfortunately, in recent years, state and federal agencies have taken to denigrating a person or groups of people who have skills of self-sustenance, implying that just because a person knows how to “live off the land,” that automatically makes them dangerous in some way.

This was used to the fullest in the search for Clint Pendleton.

Shedding more light

Other points of contention with Metzler’s assessment of the situation are worth mentioning at this juncture, as the elder Pendleton shed more light onto the matter.

The residence into which the younger Pendleton ran and obtained another weapon (described as an AK47) was his brother Kyle Dollahon’s residence.

Pendleton was staying there, said his father, because he had split temporarily from his wife, Evelyn, and while they were trying to work it out, Evelyn stayed with the couple’s little boys, ages 2 and 1, and Clint Pendleton stayed with Dollahon.

Whether that was the basis for the citation of not updating the Secretary of State with a change of address or not wasn’t something the elder Pendleton was certain about.

However, under the circumstances, it appeared to be a little bit of overkill for someone who didn’t have much of a record in Champaign County.

In 2004, the younger Pendleton was charged in that county with a misdemeanor Carrying/Possessing a Knife with Intent; in 2005 he got a 12-month Conditional Discharge sentence on that and didn’t violate, apparently.

As a result of the August 19, 2013 incident wherein he was supposedly mouthing off to a black man at a gas station, shouting racial slurs (the “fight in progress” mentioned in Metzler’s release, to which Scharlow was dispatched), Pendleton was charged, not with anything as it related to the incident with the black man at the gas station, but with assaulting Scharlow (verbally) as well as resisting arrest, both of them Class A misdemeanors….this after the cop came to Pendleton’s home with little purpose except, perhaps, to exacerbate a situation that was for all intents and purposes over with.

A few months later, Pendleton took a plea to the Aggravated Assault of a Peace Officer misdemeanor, and the Resisting charge was dismissed. Again, he got 12 months Conditional Discharge and ran into no more trouble.

He and his wife, however, opted to lodge a complaint against Scharlow…and this is where the bad blood originated, according to the elder Pendleton.

Disclosure attempted to find record of any civil complaint against the cop, in both state and federal documents, but none were discovered. The elder Pendleton has said that this was a formal complaint that resulted in some kind of charge; and so if this is discovered, it’ll be covered in the next issue.

Suffice it to say that there was a reason that, as outlined in Chief Metzler’s report, the younger Pendleton knew – and yelled at – Jeremy Scharlow “by name when hurling epithets at him.”

A reasonable person can infer at this point that there was no possible way Jeremy Scharlow couldn’t know that it was Clint Pendleton who was addressing him in the driveway on South Vine when all this kicked off.

Menace in Pope County

It was the time in between Pendleton’s first run-in with the law in Mahomet and the second in 2013, says Pope County resident Robert Hamilton, that Clint Pendleton the younger became known as a menace in Pope.

Calling Pendleton “raw gasoline looking for a spark,” Hamilton, who resides in the Delwood area, advised Disclosure that Pendleton’s cabin adventure four years ago took him into close proximity to Hamilton and his family – too close.

“Pendleton was my next-door neighbor in Pope County until 2012,” Hamilton wrote on Disclosure’s Facebook page on May 22. “He was convicted of having assaulted me and my family during that time. I was a senior citizen. He threatened us with a gun, among other things, and attempted to extort us. His attack was unprovoked and his intentions were criminal. At that time, he threatened us with additional violence if we filed any complaints against him, and stated that he would shoot any police who tried to arrest him. We had his criminal actions on video, and provided it to the sheriff.

“Pendleton’s house and ours were on private property, surrounded by the Lusk Creek Wilderness. We warned the sheriff that Pendleton was dangerous, and so the sheriff would not go out to the house to talk to the man, nor to serve the ensuing warrant. Because law enforcement would not protect us, we had to flee our home.

“At that time, I told everyone that if Pendleton wasn’t dealt with appropriately, then something like what just happened this past week was inevitable.

“After the warrants were finally issued against him, Pendleton escaped this area to return to his old home area, up north, bragging that someone in law enforcement had forewarned him. The sheriff denies that anyone did. Someone did, because Pendleton stayed in his house for months after we fled, awaiting the issuance of warrants, while the State’s Attorney took their time mulling over the ‘evidence.’ Once the warrants were finally issued, Pendleton disappeared immediately. Much of our property was stolen and vandalized during that interval, and again after Pendleton left jail.

“Originally, felony charges were filed against Pendleton, but after many months on the lam, he surrendered without incident after his lawyer plea-bargained him down to a misdemeanor. He served 30 days in jail.”

Racist

Pendleton’s formal Pope County charges were issued on April 4, 2012, nearly two months after the February 10 incident Hamilton described.

Pendleton was officially charged with Aggravated Assault involving Discharge of a Firearm and Stalking/Causing Fear for Safety, both of them Class 4 felonies; Aggravated Assault of a Person over the Age of 60, a Class A misdemeanor; and four separate counts of Criminal Trespass involving Remaining on Property after being directed to leave, two being on Feb. 10, two on Feb. 12, all four being Class B misdemeanors.

Later that year (November 19), Pendleton, having reached an agreement with the prosecutor, entered a plea to the Aggravated Assault of a person over the age of 60 misdemeanor and received a sentence of 30 days in jail and fines and fees in the amount of $3,000 (which were paid in full, something considerably different from the usual crims in the downstate area.)

Hamilton described the incident:

“He began to persecute my family after I told him I was going to have an African American friend come out to the farm for a visit. Pendleton’s response was, ‘I came back here to get away from people like that.’ Pendleton knew nothing about the guy other than the fact that he had black skin.

“Clint had a split personality. You only saw one side. Unfortunately, we were exposed to both! By the way, he threatened my wife, son, and I by shooting off a gun right outside of our house, while ranting and raving some white supremacist gibberish, and throwing a bleeding headless chicken carcass in our yard. This was a completely unprovoked act. He also tried to extort money from us. He told us if we turned him in to the police that he would harm us and shoot any police who tried to arrest him.

“I think he was having a psychotic breakdown at that time. His family was well-aware of his mental problems, having emailed me to alert us to his condition. But obviously no one was able to get him the help he needed,” Hamilton wrote.

Hamilton described Pendleton as “Nazi sympathizer, a white supremacist, and a blatant racist.” He seemed to take issue with the fact that no one from Champaign County had bothered to mention such a thing…but they didn’t.

Whether that’s because Pendleton kept it hidden, or because it simply wasn’t true and might’ve been something Pendleton used in an effort to scare Hamilton and his family, and perhaps keep them all at a distance (resulting in considerable overkill) is unknown.

What is known is that at Pendleton’s funeral in Champaign County, a well-known and well-respected black woman gave a heart-touching eulogy, according to those who were present…among the 300 people who attended, it might be added.

Too many ‘sides’

Hamilton was unmoved by input from those who knew Pendleton well, taking issue with those who expressed sorrow and disbelief over the manner in which Pendleton met his death.

“During this most recent incident, after Pendleton fled Bellflower to hide out in Pope County,” Hamilton wrote, “he returned to his old homestead in the stolen pickup, and told three people there that he would not be taken alive. I know this because I was on the phone with them shortly after Pendleton’s arrival there. This is the truth, and all the other ‘sympathetic’ bullsh!t is just ignorance. If any sympathy is due, it should go to the four children who have lost parents, and the three injured police officers and their families.”

As the victim of a crime committed by Pendleton, Hamilton’s outrage toward him and toward the response shown him in the wake of the incident and death is completely understandable. It is, however, only one side.

There were other ‘sides,’ as well. Unfortunately, too many. And this is what is causing so much turmoil in the wake of the situation.

The morning of the 9th: Flights and FLIR

The discovery that Pendleton was likely in Pope came on the morning of Monday, May 9, when most emergency services and first responders were notified that as a result of a shooting up north, state authorities had reason to believe the “shooter” was in Pope County.

Disclosure made this known at about 11 a.m. that day.

Evacuations of certain residents were underway at that time….however, the general public was not made aware of it, and news of those evacuations, including where, specifically, they were being conducted, was not released until those ones were allowed to return to their homes, at about 5 p.m. that evening. Most of the evacuees were those in the Lusk Creek Wilderness area, a sparsely-populated place, but populated nonetheless.

By that time, flights had been going on over Pope and Hardin counties, both helicopter and fixed-wing, for a couple of hours; ostensibly with FLIR (heat-signature radar), in an effort to find Pendleton.

The morning of the 10th: The finger

Early on the morning of May 10, reports coming out of Champaign County indicated that a finger had been found at the scene of the shootout in Mahomet, and that the finger belonged to Dracy Clint Pendleton, which accounted for the reports coming in that he was wounded and likely seeking medical attention of some sort.

The problem with those reports is that they were, while not false, incorrectly attributed to Pendleton’s incident.

According to Champaign County sources, there was indeed a finger found at a shooting scene…but it wasn’t Pendleton’s. It was, they said “somewhere else in the county, and the county officials handling the news releases got that shooting confused with Pendleton’s in Mahomet.”

So Clint Pendleton wasn’t injured in the hand (either one). Instead, indications were that he was injured in the neck.

The elder Pendleton confirmed this.

“We know that in the initial shootout with Scharlow, he was grazed in the neck,” Pendleton said of his son’s injuries. “We also know he was shot through the thigh at that scene.”

The morning of the 11th: Sightings

Resultant of the injuries, as well as reports trickling in that some people in neighboring Hardin County had viewed not only Pendleton, but the white truck he’d been reported as driving, ISP (in charge of the investigation) released an altered photo of Pendleton showing a cropped beard (as opposed to the “mountain man” look that he was sporting in an initial photo released May 8).

Hardin County was then added to the search grid, and Illinois State Police troopers swarmed the town of Rosiclare on the Ohio, this based on a report that Pendleton, with gauze on his neck, had been inside one of the few stores in that town, possibly looking for something for pain.

At this point, a $10,000 reward was being offered for information which lead to the successful resolution of Pendleton’s escape, and his peaceful apprehension.

The reward notice seemed to appeal specifically to someone who may already have provided assistance to Pendleton by way of food, water, medicine, or a ride somewhere.

And because there was so much law enforcement crawling the Shawnee National Forest – most of them largely without a clue as to where to look, what obstacles there were in the rough terrain, or what Pendleton could possibly be doing to be using it all to his advantage – the residents began to complain that the manhunt was about the most disorganized thing they’d ever seen, and that without the leadership of two people who knew the area best – Pope County Sheriff Jerry Suits and Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker – they were never going to find the man.

The sheriffs, however, had effectively been told to take a back seat.

The manhunt was growing, and the state boys were in charge.

Widens out to Williamson, but to no avail; the 12th

On the afternoon of the 11th, it came to Disclosure’s attention that the federal investigators were in Williamson County – specifically Marion, where there so happens to be an FBI field office – asking employees in various drug stores if they’d seen anyone who looked like Pendleton, seeking medicine for pain relief.

Given that there was literally no news coming out of either Pope or Hardin counties in the early part of the 12th, it came to be of the public’s opinion that the visit by federal agents in Williamson County may have been little more than a smokescreen.

However, later that evening, it was announced that the truck Pendleton had been driving was located.

Where the truck was located was not issued in released information. However, the Lusk Creek Wilderness area, closed to visitors over the previous two days, remained closed.

Morning of the 13th: Resources shift slightly

In the evening of Friday, May 13, the only news coming out of Pope was that the site of police presence in the county had shifted to Raum Road/Dutton Chapel Road.

It was raining; there didn’t appear to be much of anything going on at that point except for a stationary setup, which included a satellite rig ostensibly for improved communications, as well as the presence of at least one “armored truck.”

Reports indicated that locals counted about 15 to 20 federal agents (FBI) as well as up to another 15 Illinois State Police agents/troopers in the area.

The presence of the federal agents was never actually explained, as Pendleton A) hadn’t killed anyone and B) hadn’t crossed state lines in his alleged exploits, both of them generally accepted as reasons to bring in the feds.

Locals were being told on this day, however, that the state boys – originating out of Ullin’s District 22 post, but coming in from all over the area including Districts 13 and points north – were in charge, not the county (under Sheriff Jerry Suits)…and that wasn’t sitting well with locals.

Further, those out-of-area entities weren’t even staying on the ground locally, Disclosure was told, but instead, after putting in a day’s work, they would travel across the Ohio and go stay in locales in Kentucky (the fact that searches weren’t conducted at night was a side point; many locals said if in fact Pendleton was moving, that’d be when it was happening. Regardless, agents called off at night…and several, at least, didn’t spend the state’s/feds’ money in Pope to get some rest).

Whether this was because many of the lodges and cabins in Pope County – which is how Pope stays viable, as it has no other real industry – were shut down due to the threat of a single “armed and dangerous” man, or because some of the agents simply preferred the digs across the river, was never verified.

Something that was verified, however, was about to happen on Saturday the 14th.

Attending the bachelor party

On that day, much staging was going on outside Sulphur Springs Church. Heavy law enforcement presence blocked several roads off Eddyville Blacktop in the vicinity of the church and cemetery adjacent to it. This was reported to Disclosure by neighbors at about mid-morning that Saturday.

Up the way from this location, in the village of Eddyville, which recently has been plagued by its own problems involving allegedly corrupt public officials, arson and document destruction, a bachelor party was going on Saturday afternoon, May 14.

The gentleman for whom the party was being given was getting married in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 21.

While the party was in full swing, members of the forces stationed in the area to search for Pendleton showed up.

Initially, it was described to Disclosure that there were two federal agents and two ISP troopers, all four in full combat regalia with weapons, TASERs, radios, etc.

However, when the photos of the party were submitted to Disclosure a few days later, it appeared that all the agents were members of Illinois State Police, according to the insignia on the uniforms.

The party photos submitted to Disclosure were taken outside and in broad daylight, apparently at the pole barn being used to house the bachelor party.

Everyone, including the state boys, looked happy and like they were having a good time.

Refusing to comment

When Disclosure learned of the event and before the photos were obtained, staff contacted District 22 in Ullin, leaving a phone message for Trooper Gregory Miller, ostensibly the point of contact at 22 for media.

On the same day (May 17), staff contacted Miller by email as well, stating “Just in case you get to your email before you get to your phone messages…I’m wondering if you would have any info about the bachelor party two of the troopers attended in Eddyville Saturday afternoon/evening. There are photos of these troopers, and two FBI agents, all of them in full uniform, posing, having handcuffed some of the attendees (I’m assuming all in good fun)…which maybe is good PR…but there was a situation going on, and I’m wondering if there was just a lull or did no one know that these boys absconded from the area…? Also, a few years back, Harry Masse kinda got on to some troopers for effectively the same thing, then in Shawneetown at the Street Rally. I’m going to presume these aren’t the same troopers. Can you provide information on this before we post to the site tonight? Thanks.”

Miller didn’t respond; Lt. Michael Alvey did, that evening.

“I am Lieutenant Shane Alvey the Operations officer for District 22,” he emailed back. “Could we please have a copy photo? Thank you.”

“Could we have a list of the troopers who were involved in the Pendleton situation…?” staff responded.

There was no answer to that.

On May 18, staff tried again.

“So, no comment about this…? Because Jack wants to get on with the post,” Angela Howser wrote to Alvey.

There was no answer to that, either.

A few hours later, she tried again.

“So is this going to be a no comment…? Because Jack wants to get this to a post asap.”

Again, nothing…and the staff determined that the matter may have to hold until time for the print edition.

The photos came in on the night of Wednesday, May 25, just in time for the print version.

There had been no comment issued from District 22 in the interim.

Movement at Sulphur Springs Church

On Sunday, May 15, Disclosure was notified by several Hardin and Pope County residents, beginning at about 8 a.m., that there was significant movement in the area of Sulphur Springs Church on the Eddyville Blacktop.

Earlier in the morning (at about 2:30 a.m.), law enforcement amassed back in the area of the church, where just the day before, their presence had been reduced.

At shortly after 8 a.m. that Sunday morning, Pope County Sheriff’s office requested that Pope County Ambulance come to the church. Hardin County Ambulance was also dispatched.

Those listening to the scanner believed that the calls might have been for some run-of-the-mill incident, and that it was just a coincidence that both of them were dispatched at the same time.

Then scanner traffic had a “radio silence” call.

Shortly thereafter, a “shots fired!” call came over the scanner waves (Disclosure was able to obtain recordings of scanner traffic from 7:28 a.m. until just before 9 a.m. that Sunday, May 15. These sound files are available at the website.)

Spotted around midnight

The official ISP briefing following this incident – the one in which Pendleton was killed – indicates what the 2:30-in-the-morning activity was: At 12:09 a.m. that Sunday, May 15, members of ISP’s SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team saw Pendleton running south from the Sulphur Springs Church cemetery into the woods “with what appeared to be a rifle and a bandolier.”

They lost sight of him in the dense woods. However, after ISP established a perimeter, Pendleton was tracked a half-mile back to a nearby abandoned house.

ISP then said that “at approximately 5 a.m., ISP and FBI SWAT operators cleared the area. Upon approach, Pendleton opened fire. During the subsequent exchange of gunfire, one FBI SWAT operator was shot and injured.

“FBI and ISP SWAT formed a perimeter around the house and sent in a remote controlled robot which discovered Pendleton’s body lying on the second story floor along with the assault rifle. ISP and FBI SWAT entered the house and confirmed his identity. Emergency Services were called to the scene and pronounced Pendleton deceased.”

Many took issue with the way ISP characterized the events encapsulated in those two paragraphs. Primarily, locals disputed what appeared to be a timeline as laid out by ISP, which began at 5 a.m. and seemed to end shortly thereafter; locals said that there was no firefight at 5 a.m., and that the actual firefight, which involved loud explosions (concussive devices, likely, although they might also have been tear gas canisters being fired into the abandoned farm house) happened hours later.

However, that’s not what they should be taking issue with…not just because ISP gave misleading statements that literally didn’t involve a time…but because they didn’t clear the area.

Caught in the crossfire

On the afternoon of May 15, Disclosure received phone calls from Denise and James Gibbons.

The Gibbons couple, both of them age 50, having moved to rural Eddyville from northern Indiana to take care of family farm property, lived within the perimeter having been set up by law enforcement to “contain” Pendleton at the church and old farm house (both of which, it turned out, he had accessed).

Not only did they live within it, but another family, whom they knew as the Elams and who had a number of children (five or six, the Gibbons said), were also within the “perimeter” and could easily have been caught in crossfire between agents and Pendleton, depending upon which direction either of the parties – Pendleton or the agents – were firing at the time.

It wasn’t like the authorities didn’t have enough time to get everyone in the area of the Eddyville Blacktop involved in the perimeter out of the area. The Gibbons couple had “gathered up their guns” when they learned that the search had shifted over to the Sulphur Springs Church area as of Saturday the 14th.

The least the authorities could have done at that point, the Gibbons couple said, would have been to get everyone safely evacuated.

Instead, the couple said, SWAT members menaced them, at the very least, at one point late Saturday when James Gibbons went walking down their drive to the roadblock to advise them that his wife would soon be coming in from Harrisburg from her job at Huck’s Convenience Store.

“He went to tell them what I was driving, and when I would be coming in,” Denise Gibbons said… “and instead, they pulled a gun on him and pointed it right at his head. In his own driveway.”

This was where the checkpoint was located. And despite James Gibbons giving the law enforcement agents the description of his wife’s car and what time he expected her in, they stopped her at the roadblock…and pointed an automatic weapon at her head.

After explaining to them who she was and what she was doing, she was allowed to proceed to her own home.

They heard it all

ISP probably has regretted not evacuating those in the vicinity, however, including the Gibbons couple, since many were speaking out about what they heard the next morning.

James Gibbons’ information more closely matches that of the scanner traffic sound files Disclosure was sent.

“The shooting started up at about 7 a.m. and went on for two solid hours,” Gibbons said, noting that the exchange included what he believed to be concussion grenades. “After that, it went on periodically for two more hours with Pendleton taking shots at the SWAT team.”

Gibbons said he was very familiar with weapons and could tell the difference in the shots that the SWAT team was firing, by comparison to those Pendleton was firing. Over time, he was able to recognize which was which, and the diminishing shots Pendleton was taking from the farmhouse at the SWAT team, versus the multiple shots fired by the SWAT team at Pendleton.

Shortly before noon, Gibbons said, he recognized that the last two shots he’d heard and believed were from Pendleton were the last couple of rounds Pendleton had on him.

“Then I heard boom-boom-boom and cops firing back, going all the way up to noon,” Gibbons said, “and nothing after that.”

There were no shots fired after noon at the location, nor for the rest of the day. Shortly thereafter, it began leaking out of the “perimeter” (largely, from those off-scene, including one agent in Harrisburg who’d gone into a convenience store at around 12:30, according to an employee there who contacted Disclosure) that Pendleton was dead.

Interestingly, the state police are maintaining their initial report that only one law enforcement agent, a member of the federals, was injured. Reports coming from multiple sources indicate that there were at least two, and possibly three, agents injured in the firefight, but there were no deaths.

The Gibbons couple lead the way in the abject horror expressed by many Pope County residents that their sheriff and his authority had been overrun by the state and feds.

Both James and Denise Gibbons stated that Sheriff Suits had been at the scene of the final perimeter/roadblock, yelling at the other agents about people still within the perimeter and their safety…only to be told that those people were “expendable.”

Denise Gibbons said that she personally spoke with Suits later that Sunday night, and he expressed his dismay over the exchange, noting that he’d told them that none of his residents were “expendable.”

Questions, unanswered; voice recordings unused

Weeks later, the matter of how, exactly, the firefight went down; how Pendleton actually met his demise; how many agents were involved (and how much the entire operation cost); why some of them were participating in a bachelor party in full uniform; and other details were unanswered.

The elder Pendleton said that the local assessment – that the local sheriffs, Suits and Fricker, should have been in charge and utilizing their expertise – would have been the wisest way to go.

Operating under the assumption that the agents were going to attempt a peaceful resolution to his son’s apprehension, the elder Pendleton said, voice recordings were made earlier in the search, these of the younger Pendleton’s two-year-old son, his wife Evelynn, and a brother-in-law with whom Pendleton was very close.

In these voice recordings, the elder Pendleton said, they were telling him that he’d not killed a police officer, so he could know that he didn’t have to run anymore, and could turn himself in peacefully.

“He was thinking Attempted Murder, and maybe that that Scharlow died,” the elder Pendleton said. “He probably never learned that it was changed to Aggravated Battery of a Police Officer.”

As far as the elder Pendleton knew, the voice recordings were never utilized; no witnesses at the perimeter area heard them.

As far as he knew, there was never any peaceful resolution sought.

“I was going to come down there, stay in Harrisburg on my own dime, do what I could to talk him out if they caught him like they did,” he said, noting he told the only law enforcement agent who contacted him – a U.S. Marshal – said he appreciated that idea, but it was never followed up on. “I’d have signed waivers, paperwork, whatever they wanted. The Marshal was very polite and kind; he didn’t want me killed. But they weren’t in charge. ISP was, apparently.

“I was never called by ISP once,” the elder Pendleton said. “I was never called by any department except by Champaign the Sunday morning after the Mahomet incident, and then the U.S. Marshals.”

Report to come in the summer

The elder Pendleton said he’s been advised that the agency in charge – ISP – has told him that their full report won’t be out til mid-summer.

“I have questions about the number of times he was shot,” Pendleton said. “So many people shot at him. He didn’t shoot himself. I know that he knew how to kill himself if that were what he wanted, and if he’d shot himself, there’d have been nothing left of his head for viewing…and we had an open casket viewing.”

Pendleton didn’t opine on his son’s state of mind, nor of any mental or emotional problem the man may have had.

He did say that “before all this, Clint rode motorcycles; he was a workaholic. He was a carpenter. He started as a subcontractor for a modular home company; after they’d set the house, he’d go in and do the touchup work on the house. He did ironworking; he had a forge. He could draw and paint anything. He loved the outdoors. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for friends.

“He was good in school but didn’t like being cooped up. He was way up there in the percentiles in his class at Blue Ridge school in Farmer City and then at Mahomet High School.”

Righting the wrongs of the perceived ‘slights’ 

As to the cop in Mahomet – Scharlow – and the handling of the matter in southern Illinois by the various agencies, the elder Pendleton said he’s going to be patient, and see what the final reports reveal, before making a decision about how to proceed.

Options are limited, in the increasing police state that is Illinois. Many have learned that after an agency like ISP perceives a “slight,” whether it’s digging for the truth of a matter in public documents or “causing” a trooper to kill a woman in a traffic accident, the agency will go out of its way to right that “wrong”…even if the actions its agents take are, in and of themselves, also wrong, and cause undue harm – and in the case of Pendleton, death – in the “righting” of it.

Only if those who know the truth continue to speak it will everyone who relies on the agencies that are supposed to serve and protect be able to continue to rely on them…because when the truth is bent or obscured by the ones who are tasked with our safety and protection, there is no one to save or protect us at that point but ourselves.