Charles Dante Rill, 20, Velva, pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 in district court in McHenry County to Class A felony attempted murder, Class C felony disarming or attempting to disarm a patrol officer, and Class C felony aggravated assault – domestic violence. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28 before Judge Michael Hurly.

According to court documents, authorities had responded to a report that Rill had strangled a woman during a domestic violence incident on Aug. 27, 2020, and had been high while he was caring for a young child. North Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Schott arrived and a struggle began between Rill and Schott. Rill tried to punch the trooper up to five times in the face and tried to grab Schott’s sidearm and succeeded in grabbing the baton from his duty belt.

Rill struck Schott in the head with his own baton. The trooper was able to get control of Rill with the help of McHenry County Deputy Trevor Elfman, who had arrived on scene. Schott said he overheard Rill say, “If I would have got your gun, you would have been done.”

Schott and Elfman subdued him and placed him in the back seat of Elfman’s patrol vehicle, where Rill “went berserk” and kept banging loudly on the windows.