BPD: Shots fired incidents plunge in 2017 - Bloomington Pantagraph

BLOOMINGTON — So far, efforts to get criminals and guns off the streets in Bloomington has led to a sharp decline in the number of confirmed incidents of gunshots being fired in 2017, say police.

In 2016, police confirmed 44 incidents of actual gunfire where evidence or additional information confirmed a shooting took place, said Jack McQueen, BPD's police crime and intelligence analysis unit supervisor.

So far this year, there have been 15 such incidents.

“In early to mid-2017, several habitual violent offenders from the 2016 incidents were arrested on warrants, or had their day in court,” said McQueen. “All but one were either sent to prison or youth prison. This had an immediate positive impact on public safety because many of these subjects were involved in, but not charged in, multiple shootings.”

McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers agreed that a specific number of people were responsible for a large percentage of the gunfire incidents in 2016.

“Activity like this is often times cyclical,” he said. “There are not 100 people out involved in these crimes, you are talking about a handful of about 10 or fewer individuals. Once the police identify the people involved, and if we have sufficient evidence to prosecute, we focus on getting those who readily turn to gun crime off the streets.”

Officials hope the trend continues, but know that is unlikely.

“It quiets down for a time until another group decides to try their hand at similar behavior,” Chambers said.

Of the 15 incidents in Bloomington so far in 2017, six people have been wounded; there have been no fatalities. Three people have been arrested as a result of those incidents.

The cases where injuries resulted include:

• A would-be intruder was shot on April 21 by an Ohio woman who was visiting her parents in the 700 block of South Clayton Street. The suspect, 21-year-old Mykale Davis of Bloomington, recovered from a gunshot wound to the leg. He was charged burglary and battery.

• On April 27, a 20-year-old man was wounded in the leg after gunshots rang out around 9:15 p.m. in the Highland Hills Apartments complex in the 1700 block of Springfield Road.

• A 34-year-old man was injured May 14 from a gunshot wound to the legs around 2:06 a.m. in a parking lot in the 600 block of North Main Street. Fredd Mitchell, 28, of Bloomington, was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison.

• On May 20, a 27-year-old man was shot in the leg and a 25-year-old man was shot in the head in the parking lot of the Econo Lodge at 401 Brock Drive.

• On June 5, a man walked across the intersection of Empire Street and Hershey Road to get help at a gas station after being shot in the leg.

“Bloomington has seen an increase in the use and possession of firearms to settle disputes in the past five years,” McQueen said. “More alarming is the possession and use of firearms by juveniles. Every city in Illinois is currently struggling with this. Gang youth are infatuated with firearms and the possession of firearms. In many of these groups, it’s seen as a status symbol to possess and/or carry a firearm.”

Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner said his department has seen only a couple of confirmed incidents in which guns were fired this year.

The first involved a fatality on Golfcrest Avenue in May in which Daniel Lyons Jr. was charged with shooting death of David Parks outside his apartment. Lyons Jr. remains jailed on $5 million bond and is due in court for a hearing Oct. 24 on two counts of murder.

“There was a point about a year-and-a-half ago when we were on a little bit of an alarming trend and we had several over the course of a month and that was out of the ordinary for us,” Bleichner said. “Then, things turned around and we went back to a more normal pace.”

In the most recent incident in Normal, a man was shot Tuesday night in the neck. In that case, shots were reported in the 300 block of East Vernon Avenue around 8:36 p.m. and a few hours later, a man showed up at OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington with a gunshot wound. He denied being involved in the incident on Vernon. The man was treated and released, but the shooting remains under investigation.

Chambers, McQueen and Bleichner agreed that focused enforcement on guns is the key to removing more of them from Twin City streets.

“You can work drug cases all day long and we all do,” Bleichner said. “But if you have a drug case and you have a drug case with guns, we are going to put more emphasis on the ones with guns because we want to keep our citizens safe.”

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