Police: Elgin shooting suspect taunted victim's brother with emoticon
A 23-year-old man accused of attempted murder in a late-May shooting in Elgin taunted the victim's brother afterward with a text message with a smiley face emoticon and the phrase “LOL,” according to a search warrant.
Victor Rivera, of Elgin, is being held at the Kane County jail on $1.5 million bond.
Rivera is accused of shooting a 33-year-old man inside an apartment on the 0-99 block of North Dubois Avenue.
According to an affidavit used to secure warrants for a forensic search of both Rivera's and the victim's cellphones, Elgin police were called at 3:51 a.m. to the apartment to help a man who had been shot in the neck, arm and abdomen.
Gunshots woke up the victim's brother, who was sleeping in a basement apartment, according to the affidavit. The victim, who owed money to Rivera for drugs, told his brother that Rivera shot him, the affidavit said.
The brother then texted Rivera, calling him a lewd word for coward, followed by “You shot by brother,” the affidavit said.
The reply from Rivera, according to the affidavit, was a “smiley face” emoticon and the abbreviation “LOL.”
The search warrant also gives permission for authorities to search for any texts, images and cell tower locations for both phones, according to the warrant.
“(The victim's) family believes the victim's cellphone was stolen after the shooting as the victim was never without his cellphone,” the affidavit said.
If convicted of attempted first-degree murder and prosecutors prove Rivera used a gun in the commission of the crime, he faces between 26 and 50 years in prison.
He is next due in court July 17 and also faces charges of possession/manufacture of a controlled substance with intent to deliver stemming from a separate investigation by police.
A message left with Timothy Mahoney, Rivera's defense attorney, was not returned.