Springfield man was ready ‘with an arsenal’ when U.S. marshals arrived at Rockford hotel, federal prosecutors say

A Springfield man was ready “with an arsenal” after watching videos of police officers being ambushed by gunfire when U.S. marshals arrived at the Rockford hotel where he was staying in March 2019, a federal prosecutor said during opening statements Monday.

Floyd E. Brown, 42, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Keltner and attempted murder for shooting at the door of his hotel room while three marshals stood on the other side, according to Judge Matthew Kennelly and court records.

Brown did not shoot Keltner, defense attorney John M. Beal said during his opening remarks.

Pointing to Brown’s tough childhood growing up in foster care and “an adversarial relationship with police,” Beal said Brown was scared when he shot at U.S. marshals banging on the door to his hotel room and jumped out the third-floor window in an attempt to escape and return home to Springfield.

“It was not an all-American childhood,” Beal said.

Monday marked the first day of Brown’s federal trial in the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois’ Western Division in Rockford.

Brown, present in the courtroom wearing a maroon-colored shirt and tie, with a lawyer on each side, faces life in prison if convicted. The trial could last three to four weeks, Kennelly said.

Keltner’s family members, friends and fellow sheriff’s deputies, including McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim and McHenry County Undersheriff Robb Tadelman, observed the proceedings on monitors set up in a nearby courtroom.

Brown also faces separate first-degree murder charges in Winnebago County stemming from Keltner’s death as well as the charges linked to the warrants he was being served with at the time Keltner was shot.

Brown had been at the Extended Stay America Hotel since December 2018, hiding from Bloomington police when the U.S. Marshals Service task force arrived the morning of March 7, 2019, prosecutors said.

“He didn’t know when and where the police were going to catch him, but he was going to be ready whenever or wherever the police caught up to him, no matter what it took,” prosecutor Ronald L. DeWald Jr. with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “The defendant was not going to be arrested even if he had to shoot to kill.”

DeWald said Brown was searching YouTube for videos of “cops being ambushed,” offensive shooting and how to clean, assemble and disassemble a rifle.

“The defendant was getting ready,” DeWald said. “Two weeks before the murder, he went to the bathroom and had his cellphone and he videotaped himself talking to the world, rehearsing his speech. He wanted the world to know him and how much he hated the police.”

When the U.S. Marshals Service team arrived at the hotel, three marshals went inside the hotel to ask the employees if Brown was staying there, DeWald said. Keltner and other marshals were outside in the parking lot. Keltner was at the northeast end of the parking lot watching the hotel.

Hotel employees confirmed Brown was staying in the hotel and said his girlfriend had just come down to pay for another week’s stay. The marshals asked a maintenance worker to knock on the door of room 305 and say there was a leak and he needed to check to see if there was any water damage in the room, DeWald said.

Brown’s girlfriend opened the door, and the maintenance worker went in and confirmed for the marshals that Brown was in the room. The marshals than banged on the door and announced who they were and that they were there for Brown with an arrest warrant.

Brown’s girlfriend went to open the door when Brown opened fire with a rifle. She was injured, authorities have said.

“[He] pulled the trigger in the direction of those voices, pumped 10 bullets through that door … at those voices,” DeWald said.

Without any shoes on, Brown then jumped out of the third-floor window, down 21 feet and headed toward his car where he came in contact with Keltner and he shot him, DeWald said.

“Jake was between the defendant and his escape,” DeWald said.

Keltner had been in the process of calling 911 after being alerted by the three marshals in the hallway that shots were fired, DeWald said. The 911 operator never heard Keltner’s voice. He already had been shot and lying in a pool of blood on the ground by the time they answered, DeWald said.

Brown then left the hotel, heading south on Highway 39, prosecutors said. A police chase ensued after Illinois State Police spotted him and tried to stop him. Brown eventually crashed into a drainage ditch. After a five-hour long standoff, involving a cellphone being flown to Brown by a drone, Brown was apprehended. A weapon was found inside the vehicle, DeWald said.

In the hotel room, the FBI discovered firearms, ammunition and a laptop that showed Brown had been searching for videos of police officers being ambushed by gunfire, DeWald said. They also found his cellphone with a video of Brown saying he was going to kill police.

“What’s up world? If you don’t know me by now you will here before long. These [expletive] police want to make me famous, but I’m going to make (them) [expletive] famous,” DeWald said Brown said in the video.

Beal said Brown was referring to the Bloomington police and sought to cast doubt on who shot Keltner.

“Nobody actually saw Floyd Brown shoot Jake Keltner or anyone else that day,” Beal said.

Brown, Beal said, jumped out of the window and when he landed, broke his wrist, fractured his heal bone and broke his back in two places.

“Was he even physically capable of doing [shooting Keltern] with having incurred four fractures seconds before?” Beal said. “[There are] serious questions here about what even transpired. We fully recognize the death of Jacob Keltner was absolutely tragic, … but we have to look at the law. When he left the hotel. … he [headed] home to Springfield. He knew he would be caught there. When the marshals came to his room, he just left, retreated, went home.”