Decatur Mayor's son involved in officer-involved shooting

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - WAND News has learned one of the law enforcement officer involved in Wednesday's officer-involved shooting is the son of Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe.

Macon County Sheriff's Deputy Travis Wolfe was not one of the officers injured in the shooting, but according to Decatur Police, Deputy Wolfe did fire his weapon. Deputy Wolfe is a 10-year veteran of the Macon County Sheriff's Office.

>> Decatur Mayor's son involved in officer-involved shooting.

WAND News sat down with Mayor Moore Wolfe who told us during the early morning hours of Oct. 12 she received a phone call from her son.

"He called and said there's been a shooting. I'm ok, but I was involved," she said.

Moore Wolfe had learned that her son, Deputy Wolfe, was involved in a shootout with a man during a traffic stop during the early morning hours of Oct. 12. During that shooting, 2 Decatur Police Officers were hurt. She said she quickly changed her clothes and went straight to the hospital.

>> Decatur Police Officers wounded in shooting.

"It was a little hard to separate the two, because, as the Mayor, I also had 2 officers who had been shot. So, I knew he was ok, I handled that first," she said. "I got dressed really fast and headed to the hospital. I knew there was nothing I could do, but I needed to go to the hospital to check on the officers."

From the hospital, Mayor Moore Wolfe went straight to the Decatur Police Department. She told WAND News, she was briefed on what happened.

"We had decisions to make. Do we activate the ALERT team at that point? When are the Illinois State Police getting here? There was a lot of things to figure out what we needed to handle."

>> Decatur Police release names of officers involved in shooting.

Moore Wolfe played the role of mom and mayor throughout the morning and into the rest of the day. She told WAND News she had to go to her son's house to wake his wife up and let her know what had happened.

"There were a lot of things that happened and you know I needed to be strong for Travis' wife."

Wolfe had sent a text to one of her daughters letting her know what had happened. She said her other daughter was at home and heard her leave the house that morning. Moore Wolfe said her family has had the opportunity to talk and spend time together.

"We've had a lot of hugs over the past few days."

Moore Wolfe could not comment on the investigation or provide any more details about what happened. Decatur Police Chief Shane Brandel said body camera and dash camera will be released at a later time, but did not give an exact date.

>> Community comes together to pray for officers hurt.

According to police, 4 officers fired their weapons during the shootout. Sgt. Timothy Wittmer, a 15-year veteran of DPD, was shot multiple times. According to police he was released from the hospital and is at home recovering. Officer Austin Bowman, a 2-year veteran of DPD, was shot and was released from the hospital and is at home recovering. Officer Ryan Ricker, a 2-year veteran of DPD, fired his weapon but was not hurt.

The man involved in the shooting, Jamontey O. Neal, 32, of Decatur, died at Decatur Memorial Hospital at 12:48 a.m. Wednesday.

For full transparency, WAND's Reporter Doug Wolfe is the father of Deputy Travis Wolfe. Doug has not and will not report on this story, nor will he have any involvement on follow-up reports on the developing news that comes out of the investigation.