Police: 60 shots fired, little cooperation from victims, witnesses in fatal Roselle fracas
More than 60 gunshots were fired during a fracas at a rented house June 27 in Roselle in which one man was killed and four people were wounded, Roselle police said Tuesday.
And few of the partygoers or shooting victims are cooperating with investigators, according to the news release posted on the department's Facebook page.
Responding officers "were met with resistance" as they approached the home and tried to aid those who were shot, police said in a statement. No Roselle officers fired their weapons.
The police statement is the first substantial release of information since the day of the shootings, which occurred at a rented house on the first block of Picton Road.
Police gave the name of the man killed as James Elm of Maywood, but DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen has identified him as 29-year-old Jamez Elem. People posting on Facebook, who say they are relatives of the victim, give the name as Jamez Elem.
Police said the first shots came around 1:30 a.m. when someone fired a handgun inside the house. Several other people then started shooting.
Many people left after the gunshots, according to the statement.
"Few, if any, of the partygoers or victims are cooperating with the police or investigators in this case," the statement said.
The statement did not indicate whether anyone is in custody. Roselle detectives, investigators from the MERIT major crimes task force, the county sheriff's forensic unit and the DuPage County state's attorney's office are working on the case. Assembling evidence to reconstruct the task was described as "complex and tedious" work.
Anyone with information was asked to contact Detective Sgt. Robert Gates at (630) 671-4027 or email him at rgates@roselle.il.us.
"In the days of social media, we see many rumors being passed along about this case. The Roselle Police Department needs to assemble as much valid information on this case as possible, we need to protect those victims in this case and bring those responsible to justice," the statement said.
Hundreds of people commented on previous posts by the department, which merely stated the location, that a person had been killed, that several people had been injured, but that they believed there was no danger to Roselle residents. Last week the mayor defended the police' reluctance to say much about the incident to the public or the media.
Many of the people who posted said the house was listed for short-term rental on the websites for AirBNB and VRBO. Some theorized the renters were residents of Chicago and that the house had been rented out by a musician who was making a video.
In their Tuesday statement, police said many of the people involved live in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago. The City of Chicago now refers to the area as East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park, both of which are tied for seventh place for first- and second-degree homicides over the past year on the Chicago Police Department's ClearMap Crime Summary.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Robert Gates at (630) 671-4027 or email him at rgates@roselle.il.us.