A Delaware police officer was declared clinically dead days after responding to a “fight in progress” call while on duty that left him with severe head injuries.
Cpl. Keith Heacook, 54, of the Delmar Police Department, responded to a home in Delmar, Delaware, in the Yorkshire Estates Community on Sunday to a report of a fight in progress allegedly involving Randon D. Wilkerson, 30, WPVI reported.
The 911 caller reported Wilkerson was acting disorderly, fighting with other house residents, and destroying objects inside the house.
When Heacook arrived at the residence, Wilkerson confronted him, investigators said.
The dispatcher lost contact with Heacook, and when additional officers were dispatched to the scene, they found Heacook unconscious and began to administer first aid until additional help arrived, NBC 10 Philadelphia reported.
Heacook was rushed to a local hospital before being sent to a Baltimore trauma center with “significant” head injuries.
He was placed on life support to donate his organs and declared clinically dead Wednesday at 12:48 p.m. at the Baltimore trauma center.
Police said they spotted Wilkerson walking behind the property, and he was arrested without incident. Wilkerson faces multiple charges, including charges that were upgraded to murder, according to WMDT.
Heacook served with the Delmar Police Department for 22 years and left behind a wife and a son.
“These are the worst moments any of us can imagine: mourning the loss of a member of our law enforcement family,” Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement Wednesday night.
“Cpl. Keith Heacook served his Department and his community honorably and faithfully for more than two decades – a family man, a public servant, and a protector of his community until his final days,” Jennings added.
No funeral arrangements have been made yet, but more details will be announced in the coming days.