UPDATED, 3:15 p.m. with identity of woman, further details of altercation.
O'FALLON, Ill. • A police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old woman in a pickup stopped in the driveway of an O'Fallon home early Monday after she pointed a gun at the officer, police say.
The woman has been identified as Alexandra N. Nance of O'Fallon.
Detectives with the Illinois State Police have taken over the investigation of the police-involved shooting, which happened about 3 a.m. today at 810 Victoria Lane in O'Fallon.
The officer with the O'Fallon Police Department was uninjured.
Lt. James Morrisey of the Illinois State Police said, "At this point, the officer's actions appear to be justified."
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"The female showed a handgun, and the officer fired several times," Morrisey said.
Morrisey said Nance did not live at the home on Victoria Lane where the shooting took place. She had a previous relationship with someone who lived there and had gone there earlier in the night.
She was asked to leave the house, and police were called. An O'Fallon officer escorted her off the property and told her to stay away, Morrisey said.
Later, an officer spotted Nance driving a Ford Ranger pickup and followed her. The officer told a dispatcher that she wouldn't stop for him and tried to ram his patrol car. She pulled into the driveway of the home on Victoria.
"Believe it or not," the officer told a dispatcher, "she's pulling back (into) 810 Victoria ... she's pulling to the house."
Forty seconds later, the officer excitedly tells the dispatcher: "She's got a gun."
Then a few seconds later, the officer said: "Send EMS."
The state police said Nance did not exit the truck but threatened the officer with the gun from within the cab. She was shot after ignoring orders to drop the weapon.
Nance was pronounced dead at the scene.
Morrisey wouldn't comment on whether Nance had fired at the officer. Police recovered a gun inside the pickup. Morrisey said the officer had a video camera inside his patrol car that recorded the incident.
