Delaware police officer dies days after being attacked while responding to fight

This article originally appeared on NBC10.

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A Delaware police officer has died days after he was attacked while responding to a fight.

Cpl. Keith Heacook, 54, was declared “clinically dead” Wednesday at 12:48 p.m. at a Baltimore hospital, Delmar Police Chief Ivan Barkley said.

On Sunday, shortly after 5 a.m., Heacook responded to the 1100 block of Buckingham Drive in the Yorkshire Estates Community in Delmar, Delaware, for a report of a fight in progress.

A 911 caller reported a man, later identified as Randon Wilkerson, 30, was being disorderly, fighting with other residents inside the house and destroying items inside the home. Moments later, a separate 911 call was made by a neighbor of the original caller across the street claiming he and his wife had been attacked by a man who was no longer in the house.

When Heacook arrived at the home, he was confronted by Wilkerson, investigators said.

The dispatcher on the line with Heacook tried checking on him but received no response. Additional officers, including a state trooper and a Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office deputy, were dispatched and found Heacook unconscious inside the home, according to officials.

They rendered first aid, and Heacook was rushed to TidalHealth in Salisbury before being transferred to R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with “significant” head injuries.

As police investigated, they found an elderly couple who had also been assaulted across the street. Investigators said their attack was related to the first, and the couple was rushed to area hospitals, with one also transferred to R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.

Wilkerson allegedly knocked on the back door of the couple’s home and was met by the 73-year-old male victim. Wilkerson then attacked the man, striking him numerous times with a glass object, investigators said. Wilkerson then repeatedly attacked a 76-year-old woman with the same object before fleeing the house, according to officials.

Both victims suffered significant injuries and were taken to area hospitals. The elderly woman was later taken to Shock Trauma in Baltimore.

Police said they spotted Wilkerson walking on the back of the property where the first 911 call was made. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with attempted murder, assault, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, burglary, assault and terroristic threatening.

Wilkerson was arraigned and committed to Sussex Correctional Institution on $451,000 cash bond. Police have not yet announced any updated charges against Wilkerson in the wake of Heacook’s death.

Heacook was a 22-year veteran with the Delmar Police Department. He is survived by a wife and son.