Champaign man arrested for shooting a passer-by
UPDATED 9:25 a.m.
CHAMPAIGN — Champaign police arrested a man who was holed up in his home for several hours after allegedly shooting another man about 11 p.m. Monday in a neighborhood on the city's northwest side.
Police Chief R.T. Finney said about 7 a.m. Tuesday police arrested LaQuincy Harmon, 30, of the 1200 block of Hedge Road.
"We had to fire some tear gas and they negotiated and he came out," said Finney, adding there was no one else in the home that the department's SWAT team had surrounded.
Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz said her office charged Harmon with aggravated battery with a firearm, a Class X felony. He's being held on a $1 million bond pending a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Deputy Champaign Police Chief Troy Daniels said Harmon and Mario Pettigrew, 18, had argued, apparently over a traffic jam.
"There was a vehicle that the victim was in on Hedge Road near Holly Hill Drive. It was not able to continue traveling because of the number of people in the street. Pettigrew and Harmon got into a verbal altercation. When the victim stepped out of the vehicle, he was shot by the suspect," Daniels said.
When police got there, they quickly learned that Harmon was the alleged shooter. They had information to suggest he was inside his home and took steps to get an arrest warrant for him and a search warrant for the house.
"We made contact with him by phone but he refused to come out," Daniels said.
About 4:30 a.m. the SWAT team arrived and surrounded the house while officers continued to negotiate with Harmon for another two hours.
"He had many, many opportunities to come out. We were repeatedly asking him to come out," said Daniels, saying negotiators used both a phone and a bull horn. "Tear gas was eventually fired into the residence."
Harmon, who was alone in the house, came out around 7 a.m. and was taken to jail.
Pettigrew was listed in serious condition at Carle Foundation Hospital late Tuesday morning.
No one else was hurt, police said.
Again, this area is the scene of at least two more shootings last night. Having driven through this area in the past few years after the fireworks, and from talking with some officer friends I have, I was surprised to learn no extra effort was put in to police this area.
Out of curiosity, where your officer friends able to give you a reason why they are not patrolling the area more? I have an idea of why it is but curious to know if they told you.
What are they going to do? Put a car on every block for how many hundred blocks? If they did, someone would protest/sue for discriminatory practices. Does this guy have a record? I'm going to guess that he didn't have a FOID card to own that gun...
Search of public records via the Circuit Clerk's website confirms two prior charges, one misdemeanor and one felony. Both were dismissed.
Sounds like a great spot to build a new baseball stadium.
Old Comisky was great for the immediately neighboring entrepreneur. You'd give him a sawbuck, and park in his front yard.
I was listening to the scanner last night.. lots of huge fights in the area of Mattis and Bradley yet nothing in the NG about it. I must have been dreaming.....
And the amazing thing is these fights in that area go on all night long, day after day with the participants being as young as 12 years old. Would like to know where the parental supervision is for these future DOC guests. I can tell you I know right where my children are in the middle of the night and early mornings. Right at home where any properly guided child should be.
were the police called and a report made for the gazette to report on or possibly was the paper already put to bed for the early morning delivery and it just didn't make it into tuesdays issue
But again we continue to listen to the vocal minority. We need to start allowing the police to be the police. Stop trying to manage from the City Managers office. Let's get back to aggressive law enforcement on all fronts. Not just in that area but on campus as well.
Jsmith68 - I am so very much with you on this. As far as I'm concerned everyone is a minority in one way or another but only a certain percentage yells out that they are being picked on. I am really tired of that being the excuse for EVERYTHING. I have never and would never use that as an excuse.
How can you get back to aggressive law enforcement when the State's Attorney does nothing to prosecute the offender? Police work hard gathering evidence, Julia's office dismisses the case.
Wow, another shooting. I'm shocked. Been almost a week. I guess as the person that disagreed with me before would like me to say - must be those darn rich kids again. HA! Not all low income citizens are African American nor are all well to do citizens Caucasian. I would NEVER make either of those claims. Being a thug and a person who enjoys getting by on public aid because they are too lazy to get a job, is not a racial issue. This is an issue of people that "expect" someone to pay for them and are just too lazy to make an honest living because they CAN get by without that. Gives them plenty of time to cause crime.
I am curious myself as to why the police waited as long as they did to tear gas him. It won't harm him permanentally and we could save soooo much money on paying all of the SWAT team and officers to stand around all night. Gas the house, get him out, throw him in the slammer. I'm sure he won't get charged with much, which is normal, but don't waste more tax payer money. Thank goodness no one else was hurt. Mario didn't deserve to either though.
The city,state and the USA is broke and you want more police on the streets? Good luck! YOU hate Socialism, so hire your own body-guards and get over expecting the government to keep you safe.
". . . get over expecting the government to keep you safe." Nice to see a concealed carry supporter!
It's only now starting to get hot...... just wait, it's going to get worse. The people doing the shooting and carrying the weapons are not your upstanding citizens of Champaign. You know why? BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL TO CARRY WEAPONS IN ILLINOIS! Your not allowing the police to be police......you want the police to be your baby sitters........ "call to 911".....( my kid won't get up and go to school, will you send the police over here and make him get out of bed and go to school). This is what you want the police to be, so here you are! If you hear on your scanner there is a problem at Mattis and Bradley.......then stay away from there! Stay home and lock your doors..........4 shootings in less than one week....... How many of those shooters were apprehended? Why would any criminal be afraid of the police or the justice system? The health and dental care is great and the food isn't that bad and it's air conditioned. 24 hour care, weight rooms, cable T.V. and access to free internet. The worse the crime....the longer you get to stay.
As all this makes quite clear, the police are messing with the wrong people. Put the radar gun down, GET OUT OF YOUR PATROL CAR, and protect the citizens!!! Get out of the car, walk around and get to know people. It will work. Or just keep filling our jails with the non-violent criminals. Breaking the law is breaking the law, but do we really need to put folks in therefor driving on a suspended license or a cracked windshield? Do the police really need to be wasting their time when all this other stuff is happening? Give 'em a ticket, fine the heck out of them, but there are FAR too many people on the wrong side of the bars, BOTH ways. Oh, as a complete aside, our local constabulary needs to take a VERY long course on how to direct traffic after the CU fireworks. My teenage kids could do better!
It's terrible that DOC is full of people arrested for having "cracked windshields"
Who is in jail for a cracked windshield? Source? Proof? Don't make things up to try to make a point. You end up looking ridiculous.
Funny that you start by saying the police need to stop doing so much traffic control and then end it by saying they need to take a "long course" (hm that wouldn't be time or money at all) on traffic control.
It's lovely how the News Gazette allows a virtual Ku Klux Klan rally to occur under their watch in the form of public journalism through user comments of their stories. Almost all of you are spreading your ignorance and hatred of blacks by disguising your hateful remarks through the use of code words. Luckily society is not as ignorant as you may think and we’re laughing at you and the virtual white hoods you hide behind. You keep repeating the same drivel day after day showing how truly pathetic you are. Keep up the great work boys and girls!
AMEN! I love the coded racism. How do you know these people are on welfare and are too lazy to work??? How do you know this guy isn't a manager at Wal-mart or a car dealer?!?! They don't know. They just assume hes some leech black guy when they have no idea who he is.
The coded racism embedded in this post is apparent. Throwing around accusations of Klan involvement, the "virtual white hoods" statement. The added visual threat conveyed by your firearm imagery shows a violent tenancy to accompany your thinly veiled racism. Yes, we get that you own a gun. Thank you for your honesty. But it doesn't make your race baiting any more convincing.
you the troll homey you the troll. if you can't see how public journalism is being used to spread fear, hate, and racisim within your community then you're part of the problem not part of the solution. now run along and personally bash somebody else. Oh yeah, read this clowns racist rants in another post (she's basically inferring that people of some mysterious ethnic group are filthy nasty diseased creatures who are subhuman and beneath her, and the funny thing is she doesn't even use code words for most of her rant):
debbie d,
"I went by there yesterday (saturday), and saw children playing out in the parking lot. I just can't believe that something can't be done about this problem. There are at least 10 cars in the parking lot and people still living in this " dump". It's appauling that someone can't get this place shut down. I agree with the comment on the people might not be "legally" here in the community, and going to work on detasseling crews. This scares me that they would go out on these crews where some of our 15/16 yrs olds go to work on just to get a job for the summer to earn extra cash. My son is one of those who is looking to work on these crews, but i am not going to let him now...! If they let these people out on these crews and our children get exposed to some disease like hepititis A and then bring it home to the families, who is going to be held responsible for the health costs? the ramos' ? please! They are on the run and don't care about anyone but themselves."
The idea of "coded" or "invisible" is a straw man's argument that cannot be rebutted because there is no proof except the innuendo of a reader who wants to infer or imply that they believe someone else is really racist. Why can't the NG just print the truth? Don't protect the reader or lament that some may not believe what you want to believe. Notice no one gave any actual examples of code words! Instead, for many, it was just enough to make the accusation! Again, I don't read minds or make others out to be what I want them to be. Their writing is their writing and should not be made into the ridiculous. Notice I did not comment on the KKK and virtual white hood argument because it is a conjecture (and by rule, a conjecture is an argument without facts or better known as a wild guess). How does one rebut the "almost all" statements of the secret rise of the virtual KKK? One would think proof would be easy because almost all do it. Yet, no one offers proof. I will wait for someone to cherry pick a quote and chop it up. Or better yet, dismiss those who disagree as ignorant and tough to follow.
As for the statement that maybe one of these criminals actually works and might be the manager of Wal-Mart or a car dealer [or maybe professionals, like doctors and lawyers]. One doesn't know. Maybe law-biding, hardworking citizens are illegally concealing weapons and out at night shooting passers-by because of a traffic jam. Now, does this sound probable? Hardly to the point that this is laughable. And to think this story is really about some goon shooting a person because of a traffic jam.
Since when does a person go to prision for a cracked windshield? Nice argument!
yeah!
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