## Facts

- Joliet police conducted surveillance of the Illinois Wine and Liquor Warehouse on April 2, 1970.
- Defendants Glenn Hickman and Anthony Rock, with co-defendant Robert Bruce Papes, participated in a burglary of the warehouse.
- When officers moved in, the suspects fled, leading to a chase through a nearby residential area.
- During the pursuit, an officer fired at a figure in the dark believed to be a fleeing burglar but instead shot a fellow officer.
- The wounded officer died; no shot was fired by the burglars.

## Issues

1. Whether perpetrators of a forcible felony can be convicted of felony murder when a pursuing police officer mistakenly kills another officer during the chase.
2. Whether Illinois’s felony-murder statute requires that the fatal act be committed by the felon or an accomplice (agency theory), or instead permits liability when the death is a foreseeable result of the felony (proximate-cause theory).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Illinois affirmed the appellate court.
- The court held that Hickman and Rock could be liable for felony murder even though the fatal shot was fired by a police officer.
- The court approved a proximate-cause approach: the burglary and ensuing flight set in motion a foreseeable chain of events culminating in the death.
- The court rejected limiting felony murder to killings by the felon or co-felon.
- The cause was remanded for further proceedings consistent with reinstating the murder convictions.

## Legal Principles

- Under Illinois felony-murder law, liability may attach where a death is a direct and reasonably foreseeable consequence of committing and fleeing from a forcible felony, regardless of whether the fatal act is committed by a third party.
- Proximate causation and foreseeability, not the identity of the shooter, control whether a killing occurred “in the course of” and “in furtherance of” the felony.
- Police pursuit and the risk of lethal outcomes during attempted arrest can be foreseeable consequences of forcible felonies such as burglary.
- The felony-murder rule serves to deter dangerous felonies and the attendant risk that someone may die during the felony or immediate flight.

## Conclusion

The court held that fleeing burglars may be convicted of felony murder when a pursuing officer accidentally kills another officer during the chase, because the death was proximately caused by and foreseeable from the defendants’ forcible felony and flight.


People v. Hickman, 59 Ill. 2d 89, 319 N.E.2d 511 (Ill. 1974)