Nicholas D. Weist’s patrol car is now a memorial.
The black and gold sedan is parked outside the Knox County Law Enforcement Center under a white tent, with bouquets of flowers set beside its tires.
Weist, 34, was the first law enforcement officer from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office ever to be killed in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a non-profit organization that honors fallen law enforcement officers.
He died Friday, April 29, in rural Henry County during a car chase that started around 8 a.m. in Galesburg.
Weist was setting up spike strips on U.S. Route 150 and 150th Avenue south of Alpha when he was struck by the suspect’s vehicle.
Officers at the scene performed life-saving measures, but Weist died at the scene, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
He had worked for Knox County since 2018.
Weist was a 2009 graduate of Western Illinois University’s law enforcement and justice administration program, a university spokesperson confirmed.
He was also a psychology minor and a member of the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity at WIU.
The suspect, Daylon K. Richardson, 22, of Granite City, was taken into custody after the crash.
He is charged with two counts of murder in Weist’s death.
The Officer Down Memorial Page lists around 1,100 Illinois law enforcement officers that have been killed in the line of duty over time.
Of those, around 40 died after being struck by vehicles.
Following are other law enforcement officers in the tri-states who have been killed in the line of duty, according to the ODMP:
Burlington Police Department
Captain Frederick William Sauer
End of watch: May 27, 1934
Cause: Gunfire
Captain Joseph Clement Feely
End of watch: December 18, 1926
Cause: Gunfire
Canton Police Department
Assistant Chief of Police David Walter O’Brien
End of watch: August 3, 1924
Cause: Gunfire
Carthage Police Department
Marshal James C. Jacoby
End of watch: February 11, 1914
Cause: Gunfire
Cass County Sheriff’s Office
Captain Hazen Maltby
End of watch: July 27, 1976
Cause: Automobile crash
Clark County (Missouri) Sheriff’s Office
Deputy Sheriff Don David McCutcheon
End of watch: February 8, 2010
Cause: Heart attack
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Deputy Sheriff Troy Phillip Chisum
End of watch: June 25, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Galesburg Police Department
Patrolman Thomas Charles Godsil
End of watch: April 22, 1928
Cause: Electrocuted
Chief of Police Thomas Linn Mathews
End of watch: October 17, 1915
Cause: Gunfire
Patrolman George H. Allen
End of watch: August 14, 1902
Cause: Gunfire
Havana Police Department
Patrolman Warren B. Hickman
End of watch: September 22, 1946
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Henderson County Sheriff’s Department
Constable David Welch
End of watch: January 11, 1859
Cause: Gunfire
Keokuk Police Department
Patrolman Norman Juhl
End of watch: October 22, 1949
Cause: Gunfire
Macomb Police Department
Patrolman Albert Links
End of watch: December 1, 1930
Cause: Gunfire
Patrolman Ernest E. Bowman
End of watch: November 30, 1930
Cause: Gunfire
Patrolman J. Edward Whittlesey
End of watch: November 29, 1930
Cause: Gunfire
Mason County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff George Brooker
End of watch: December 13, 1894
Cause: Gunfire
McDonough County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff James L. Barclay
End of watch: May 18, 1917
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Thompson B. Campbell
End of watch: March 30, 1903
Cause: Stabbed
Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff Thomas Edward Lashbrook
End of watch: April 28, 1922
Cause: Gunfire
Constable Carl William Neff
End of watch: April 28, 1922
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Arthur Frank Utter
End of watch: April 28, 1922
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Edward E. Thompson
End of watch: July 1, 1919
Cause: Gunfire
Warren County Sheriff’s Department
Deputy Sheriff George V. Darnell
End of watch: December 7, 1981
Cause: Gunfire
