ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — As friends, family and fellow officers laid Wayne County, Illinois, Deputy Sean Riley to rest Tuesday, police and prosecutors across the river in St. Charles County issued more charges against the man they believed killed him during a crime spree spanning three states.
Prosecutors from St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar’s office issued multiple charges, including armed robbery, kidnapping, first-degree assault, vehicular hijacking and armed criminal action against 40-year-old Ray Tate of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
In all, Tate is now facing 14 charges out of St. Charles County, Lohmar announced at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
The new charges Tuesday are connected to carjackings, robberies and shootings in St. Peters and O’Fallon, which ultimately ended in a hostage situation in Illinois last Wednesday. He could face life in prison for the charges in Missouri alone.
The Wayne County State’s Attorney’s Office has already issued murder charges against Tate for Riley’s death.
Federal prosecutors told 5 On Your Side they, too, are considering issuing charges against Tate related to the spree.
Here is a timeline of the events that led to his arrest and some of the charges issued against him Tuesday:
Dec. 16:
In a Facebook post, the Knox County Sheriff's Office identified Tate as a suspect in a shooting near a hotel in the area. They said he got away from deputies and fired a shot at a driver in an attempted carjacking.
Dec. 29:
Around 5 a.m.
Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Riley responded to a "motorist assist" call on Interstate 64 in Illinois.
Wayne County is approximately two hours from the St. Louis area just east of Mt. Vernon, Illinois.
Another officer found Deputy Riley's body at the scene, but his squad car was missing.
Officers found the squad car along I-64, but they said Tate got into a tractor-trailer before officers arrived and forced the driver at gunpoint to take him to St. Peters, Missouri.
Around 7 a.m.
St. Peters, Missouri, police report a carjacking and shooting at the QuikTrip at 391 Main Street.
Police say Tate tried unsuccessfully to carjack someone at the QuikTrip. When he couldn't, he moved onto a different victim, who he shot in the shoulder before stealing his car.
That victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and police found the vehicle at a business in an industrial area in O'Fallon, Missouri, off Interstate 70, about a mile away.
There, O'Fallon police said Tate saw a man get out of a white Nissan Titan pickup for a cigarette and asked him if he could have a cigarette. He then forced the truck owner to drive him away at gunpoint.
That was captured by surveillance cameras at that business.
12:22 p.m.
A large police presence formed at a house on Beaver Road just north of Carlyle, Illinois where police say Tate drove the pickup and forced his way into a home where he held the kidnapped victim from the pickup truck and the homeowner against their will.
The pickup truck owner managed to escape, but the homeowner remained held at gunpoint.
The homeowner told 5 On Your Side's Holden Kurwicki Tate held a gun to his forehead while on the phone with police and forced him to tell police where the gun was pointed before moving the gun away from his head and firing it.
Police tracked the Tate to that house by a smart watch the pickup truck owner was wearing.
Officers with the Illinois State Police SWAT division arrested him.
Around 1:30 p.m.
Indiana State Police confirmed Tate was wanted in connection to the Wayne County deadly shooting and St. Peters carjacking and that he was taken into custody near Carlyle, Illinois.