‘Part of my duty,’ Belleville police officer foils robbery, honored with national award
Belleville Police Department Officer William D. Cook — who goes by Dan — humbly accepted the National Grange Law Enforcement of the Year Award with the understanding what he accomplished was part of a team effort.
On Feb. 14, 2021, Valentine’s Day last year, Cook was on patrol near the western edge of West Main Street when he got a report of a robbery at a Walgreens. He spotted the fleeing robbers and became involved in a high-speed car chase. Several miles later, with the assistance of many other police agencies, as he pointed out, he captured one of the three armed robbers who attempted to flee further after an accident stopped the car.
He was told he was a hero, but said he didn’t want excessive acclaim while receiving his award last week at the Turkey Hill Grange Hall. He was first nominated by the Turkey Hill Grange for a regional award and kept winning all the way to the national award.
He matter-of-factly figures it was all in a day’s work.
“That’s part of my duty,” he said, last week while being honored at the Turkey Hill Grange Hall in east Belleville.
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But a darned dangerous part of his duty.
The robbers’ car fled at a high rate of speed — 118 mph he later learned. He was too busy coordinating the chase and staying alive to notice the actual speed. The chase went down West Main and turned onto Illinois 157, heading toward Caseyville. Then the men fleeing car turned west onto Interstate 64. Around Interstate 255 someone threw the stolen cash drawers out a window. Police later recovered them.
The car tried to escape by getting off the interstate at 25th Street in East St. Louis but it was blocked by traffic, hitting a car and coming to rest under a tractor-trailer. While other officers arrested two of the robbers, Cook left his patrol car and confronted one of the robbers trying to crawl under the truck to escape. Cook said the man had a strange look on his face when he came out from under the trailer and realized he was running into a drawn gun.
Cook, 62, has 27 years of service with the Belleville Police Department and is the field training officer for the department. So he has taught many of the things he used in the successful chase.
He has been a DARE officer and a school resource officer. On his own he provided and equipped a DNA trailer to voluntarily collect information on children at various events so parents would have photos and records in case of an emergency.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
