In April 2019, Carla Redd, then Assistant Deputy Chief of the Rockford Police Department and a nearly 20year veteran, was involved in an off duty shooting on January 20, 2019, near Living Faith Tabernacle on 8th Street around 6:30 PM. She told officers, including Gustavo Lopez, that while sitting in her black 2004 Yukon waiting for her husband Ronald Miller, who was inside the church, a blue station wagon pulled up and two men asked, “where the hoes at?” prompting her to place her off duty gun on her lap. She claimed she attempted a U turn when the station wagon struck her vehicle at high speed, after which she fired two shots into it, the driver fled, the passenger took over, and she followed the vehicle until it reached a dead end before losing sight of it and returning to the church. However, she later turned over a different weapon, a department-issued .40 caliber Smith & Wesson loaded with hollow points with only one round missing, contradicting her statement that she fired two shots from her off duty gun.
Ronald Miller gave a conflicting account to officer Kyle Robertson, stating he saw a man on foot speaking to Redd, heard her yell “Turn around!”, and during his own U turn heard what he believed was one shot from Redd. He then exited his truck with a gun and, believing a station wagon driving toward him would ram him, fired two shots at it. He later chased a man on foot before returning, called 911, and told police he thought Redd went east, despite that not aligning with events. His account included no mention of a crash, and neither he nor Redd could identify the vehicle.
Witnesses further contradicted both accounts. One reported seeing a pickup truck pull in front of a station wagon and SUV, a man exit, and then hearing multiple shots before the station wagon drove away. Other residents reported hearing shouting followed by a series of shots and a final shot, with one hearing a woman yell, “No! You can’t do it! No! Don’t do it!” Physical evidence also conflicted with Redd’s claims, showing no major crash damage, only minor paint transfer and bullet holes.
These inconsistencies, including conflicting statements, mismatched weapons and shot counts, lack of crash evidence, and differing witness accounts, raised doubts about the official version of events, suggesting at minimum Redd’s account was inaccurate and at most that Ronald Miller fired the shots and the incident narrative was misrepresented.
Despite this, Redd remained on duty, was publicly portrayed by media (including WREX’s “Inspiring 815”) as a victim of vehicular assault, and in June 2019 the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force ruled the shooting justified.
This incident was the 17th case investigated and justified by the task force, the 19th deadly force incident of the 2010s, the second Rockford police shooting in three weeks (after the killing of Kerry Blake), and the sixth deadly force incident since Tom McNamara took office.