The Death of Lamar Bell

On July 17, 2023, at around 8:00 PM Lamar Bell was driving a red Cadillac on the south side of Rockford, Illinois, when Illinois State Trooper Daniel Monaco and Sergeant Michael Steele began following him. They initiated a traffic stop in front of Tenth Avenue Park allegedly due to window tint.

Monaco approached the vehicle, observed Lamar acting erratically and ordered him out of the vehicle. Manaco then searched him for weapons, placed him in handcuffs, and then searched the car. Inside, Monaco found wet baggies he believed contained remnants of cocaine and told Steele, “(Lamar) swallowed all of these.” Lamar was placed in the front passenger seat of the patrol car while the search continued.

Early in the interaction, Lamar told officers he was scared because police had killed his father, Lee Charles Bell, over two decades earlier after Rockford police shoved him to the ground, causing a fatal head injury. As officers found more baggies, they questioned Lamar about how much cocaine he had swallowed. His behavior became increasingly erratic, and he repeatedly requested an ambulance, at times admitting he had swallowed cocaine.

When his requests were not met, Lamar began kicking inside the squad car, leading officers to remove him and place him on the sidewalk with his head resting on an officer’s legs. He continued to ask for medical help and also requested they call his mother, but troopers continued questioning him about drug consumption, saying they needed that information before calling an ambulance.

Rockford Park District officer Ben Champion later arrived. Nearly 30 minutes after the initial stop, troopers called for a Rockford Police transport van to take Lamar to jail, and only a few minutes later did they call for medics. About 15 minutes after that, roughly 45 minutes after the stop, Lamar was transported to Swedish American Hospital, where he later died.