Report: Will County cop’s fatal shooting possibly caused by involuntary trigger pull

A Will County sheriff’s lieutenant’s fatal shooting of a hostage taker could have been the result of an involuntary trigger pull, according to a firearm expert’s analysis.

Reports of the examination of the rifle used in the fatal shooting of Gregory Walker, 65, of Crest Hill, who took hostages at a bank, were released Tuesday by Illinois State Police in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The reports regard an Accuracy International AX308 rifle used by Lt. John Allen, a SWAT team sniper for the Will County Sheriff’s Office.

Allen shot Walker with the rifle after Walker surrendered to police May 10, 2022, at Fifth Third Bank in Romeoville.

A special grand jury in Will County declined to file charges against Allen. He still faces a federal lawsuit from Walker’s family over the incident, as well as an internal affairs investigation.

Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said the president of the union representing Allen reported that the shooting occurred “as a result of a weapons malfunction.”

But the Accuracy International rifle functioned normally, according to testing done by the FBI and a company called Nth-Level.

The FBI issued its report on the rifle about two weeks after the shooting. The 2022 report detailed no issues with the rifle, but it made no mention of the shooting possibly occurring because of an involuntary trigger pull.

The latter issue was raised in a 2023 report from Nth-Level, a company solicited by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office to conduct further testing of the rifle, Illinois State Police reports indicate.

Derek Watkins is the president and chief engineer for Nth-Level, which is based in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Watkins’ LinkedIn profile describes him as an expert witness in appliances, firearms and ammunition.

Watkins' report said he was asked to determine whether the rifle was capable of firing without a direct trigger pull. He concluded that the rifle fired because the trigger was “pulled or otherwise actuated.”

Watkins reported that his review of the rifle and Illinois State Police reports “indicates the physical evidence and the actions” of Allen at the time of the shooting were “consistent with a sympathetic trigger pull.”

A sympathetic muscle contraction is a reflexive muscle contraction in “response to an intentional muscle contraction in another part of the body,” according to Watkins’ report.

“Reportedly, [Allen] was manipulating the bolt [of the rifle] at the time of discharge. The effort put forth to close the bolt with one hand could cause the other hand to sympathetically contract and pull the trigger,” according to Watkins’ report.

Watkins’ report said physical evidence does not support that the rifle was fired without a trigger pull.

“However, the condition of the evidence does not mean [Allen] is being dishonest. Due to the nature of sympathetic trigger pulls, the operator may not be aware they initiated a trigger pull/actuation,” according to Watkins’ report.

On Oct. 2, 2023, an Illinois State Police agent allowed retired Joliet police Sgt. Pat Cardwell, along with Mark Revis, to take possession of the rifle for Nth-Level’s examination.

Cardwell and Revis are investigators with Glasgow’s office.

The Nth-Level examination of the rifle took place at North Star Imaging laboratory in Orlando, Florida, according to Watkins’ report. Cardwell and Revis were present for the testing.

Watkins found no defects with the Accuracy International rifle. The report said the rifle is “safe in design and manufacture for its intended and reasonably foreseeable uses.”

“In its condition at the time of the shooting, the [rifle] did not possess any defective or unreasonably dangerous conditions, and all post-incident attempts to cause the [rifle] to fire absent a trigger pull have failed,” according to Watkins’ report.

Watkins’ report was sent to Glasgow’s office Nov. 15, 2023. A special grand jury regarding the Allen case later convened Oct. 31, 2024.