On July 26, 2016, Winnebago County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a welfare check at a home on Old River Road involving 58 year old John Heffran. Limited information has been made public about the incident. Deputies reported that Heffran was alive and experiencing a health crisis when they entered the home, but described him as “combative,” leading them to place him in handcuffs. While restrained, Heffran allegedly became unconscious and died.
This case was the tenth investigated and ruled justified by the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force and the twelfth deadly force investigation of the 2010s.