Fairview Heights police officer shot in face attends Belleville fundraiser
Fairview Heights police officer Molly Muennich made her first public appearance on Saturday since being shot in the face six weeks ago.
The occasion was a Rock the Blue festival organized by downtown Belleville businesses to raise money for Muennich and four other officers injured while responding to a 911 call about a prowler.
Muennich, 25, rolled up on a scooter with one leg in a medical boot, but she stood to pose for photos with family and friends. Her jaw is still healing from surgery, according to her mother.
“We’re just thankful that she’s alive,” said Brigette Brouillard, 52, who lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Muennich declined to be interviewed.
Fairview Heights Police Chief Steve Johnson said prosecutors with the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office don’t want her speaking to the media due to the criminal case against the alleged shooter.
Also injured in the incident were officers Herminio “Tony” Raimundi, Andrew Ward, Jason Totel and Jon Henne. Ward was shot in the chest but protected by a bullet-proof vest. Ward, Totel and Henne are back on the job.
Raimundi was shot in the arm, fragmenting a bone into five pieces and requiring surgery. He’s recovering at home.
“(Muennich) has a long road to recovery but is doing amazingly well,” Johnson said. “She was in the hospital for over a month, and after she was released, she had to go back to the hospital a few times.
“But she is unbelievably strong and strong-willed. So she is kicking butt. She’s a superstar.”
Molly Muennich is engaged to be married. Her fiance, Devon Rathbun, was at Rock the Blue, along with her father and stepmother, Larry and Julie Muennich, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and her mother.
Family members have been staying in the metro-east since May 17, when Molly Muennich was shot. Local residents and people from all over the country have reached out with calls, emails, Facebook posts, yard signs, food, monetary donations and gifts.
Airbnb owners offered family members free lodging, and Auffenberg refused to take money for servicing their vehicles, according to Larry Muennich, 52.
“I’m overcome by the level of support from Fairview Heights Police Department and the surrounding community,” he said. “In such a time of need, I didn’t know how important this would be. We wouldn’t have been able to be with our daughter the way we were without it.”
“It has made a horrific situation bearable, without a doubt,” said Brouillard, Molly Muennich’s mother.
Fairview Heights police were dispatched to Potomac Drive at 9:44 p.m. May 17 to investigate a suspicious person prowling near a residence, but they quickly determined it was a possible domestic situation.
Officers confronted Elijah Thompson, 22, of Belleville, who opened fire, according to news releases from the police department. He later was charged with four counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated battery and one count of resisting arrest.
Rock the Blue was the brainchild of Conni Tilley, co-owner of Venue on Main, and Renae Eichholz, co-owner of Copper Fire bar and restaurant, who also organize Live Music Row events in downtown Belleville.
Tilley and Eichholz joined forces with Rachel Speichinger, owner of Rachel’s Sidebar, and other business owners to produce Rock the Blue from 1 to 11 p.m. Saturday as a “pop-up edition” of Live Music Row.
Activities at two downtown locations, one on West Main Street and one on East Main Street, include live music, food trunks, a police dunking booth, raffles, 50/50 drawings and other fundraising.
“All proceeds will go to Fairview Heights Police Department,” Tilley said.
Rock the Blue kicked off with comments by Fairview Heights Mayor Mark Kupsky, who told the crowd he was “heartbroken” to receive a call about police officers being injured on May 17.
Kupsky described the offer by Belleville businesses to host Rock the Blue and the outpouring of other support from metro-east residents and others in the past six weeks as “phenomenal.”
“The police department is a family, so it means so much,” he said.
Reporter Mike Koziatek contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM.
