2nd woman sentenced in straw purchase of gun used to kill 1 Ill. officer and wound another

Associated Press

URBANA, Ill. — An Indianapolis woman has been sentenced to four years in prison after taking part in the straw purchase of a handgun that was used to kill one central Illinois police officer and wound another during a shootout.

Trending

Active Shooter

Gunman kills 2 children, injures 17 in shooting at Minneapolis Catholic school

Minneapolis Police say the shooter opened fire through church windows toward the children sitting in the pews during school Mass before dying at the scene

August 27, 2025 06:44 PM

Federal law enforcement

Federal agents detain crews, arrest firefighters battling Wash. wildfire

Two firefighters who were part of a private contractor crew were arrested by federal agents during an ID check during the Bear Gulch Fire

August 28, 2025 11:01 AM

Medical

Medical response to Minneapolis school shooting aided by LE’s early casualty estimate

Police officers brought the injured to the front of the church, where paramedics triaged them and, at times, loaded two or three patients at once into ambulances

August 28, 2025 08:56 AM

Officer Down

Mass. State Police recruit who died during training was killed by blunt force injuries to the head

The autopsy states Enrique Delgado-García died of complications from “intracranial hemorrhages due to blunt impact injuries of the head in the setting of physical training exercises”

August 28, 2025 11:19 AM

Ashantae Corruthers, 30, appeared at a sentencing hearing Tuesday in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois said in a news release.

Corruthers was accused of engaging in a conspiracy to illegally purchase and transfer a firearm and conspiracy to engage in misleading conduct. She pleaded guilty in June 2023 and admitted that she conspired with Regina Lewis and Darion Lafayette to buy the gun in 2020 at an Indianapolis gun store for Lafayette, Lewis’ cousin, who was a convicted felon and could not legally buy a firearm.

Corruthers falsely certified on a form for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that she bought the gun for herself. She later reported to Indianapolis police in 2021 that the gun had been stolen.

Lafayette fatally shot Officer Christopher Oberheim and wounded Officer Jeffrey Creel on May 19, 2021, after they responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex in Champaign, about 135 miles (217 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

Lafayette was also fatally shot.

Lewis, of Normal, Illinois, was sentenced in December 2023 to 8 1/2 years in prison for engaging in a conspiracy to buy and transfer a firearm and a conspiracy to engage in misleading conduct.