2nd Illinois State Police trooper killed in crash this week

GREEN OAKS, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois State Police say a trooper was killed while on-duty when a wrong-way vehicle struck his squad car on Interstate 94 in northern Illinois.

The agency says 36-year-old Trooper Gerald Ellis was driving home Saturday when he was hit at about 3:25 a.m. in Green Oaks. The vehicle was driving eastbound in the westbound expressway lanes and struck Ellis’ squad car head-on. Ellis died at a hospital at about 4 a.m. Ellis was an 11-year state police veteran with District 15 in Downers Grove.

Ellis is the second state trooper to die on Illinois roads this week and the third trooper to die this year. Trooper Brooke Jones-Story was killed when a truck struck her in Freeport. A vehicle fatally hit Trooper Christopher Lambert in January near Northbrook.