Three Wheeling men charged in Mount Prospect shooting
Three Wheeling men with felony convictions face mob action charges related to a shooting in which no one was hit late Wednesday afternoon in Mount Prospect.
Authorities described defendants Edgar Gonzales, 23; Juan Salinas, 23; and Rodrigo Acosta-Caballero, 24, as known gang members during their bond hearing Friday before Cook County Judge Joseph Cataldo.
Gonzales, who is on parole for 2012 convictions for firearm possession and harassing a witness' family member, was ordered held on $60,000 bail. Salinas, who has a pending criminal trespass charge in addition to a 2014 misdemeanor domestic battery conviction and a 2010 burglary conviction, was ordered held on a total bail of $55,000, including $5,000 for violating his bail bond. Acosta-Caballero, who received 18 months' probation for obstructing justice and destroying evidence in 2013 and two years in prison for a battery to a pregnant woman in 2010, was ordered held on $60,000 bail.
Three witnesses said a vehicle with four passengers drove up to a building on the 1200 block of Boxwood Drive about 4:41 p.m. Wednesday, said Cook County assistant state's attorney Alyssa Grissom. Two men, one carrying a handgun and the other holding a baseball bat, exited the vehicle and approached the witnesses, Grissom said.
The man with the handgun fired multiple rounds at the witnesses, then both fled in the car, Grissom said.
The witnesses called Mount Prospect police with a description of the car, which Wheeling police located a short time later on the 200 block of Old McHenry Road, Grissom said. Wheeling police identified the occupants, including a juvenile co-offender as gang members, she said.
The witnesses subsequently identified Gonzales, Salinas and Acosta-Caballero as the passengers and the same men who approached them earlier, Grissom said. Police found a loaded .38 caliber handgun on the rear seat that matched spent shells found at the shooting scene, she said.
If convicted, the defendants face up to three years in prison. They next appear in court on Aug. 6.
• Daily Herald staff writer Doug T. Graham contributed to this report.