Teens: Off-duty cop shot into our car at Fermilab
While DuPage County law enforcement authorities remain tight-lipped about a weekend shooting at Fermilab involving an off-duty police officer, people in the car with the shooting victim are telling their side of the story.
They say their green Honda was sideswiped by a black Jeep, which then chased them into a dead-end on the property of Fermilab, near Batavia. As they attempted to pass the Jeep, the six occupants of the car, ages 17 through 24 and all from Cicero, say the man they presume to be the off-duty officer stood in the roadway, gun drawn.
“He jumped out in front of his car, waited for us, standing in a position that he was holding his gun firm and steady like an officer would,” said 19-year-old Joaquin Ruiz. “But he didn’t identify himself, he didn’t show no badge, he didn’t yell out nothing. And then he just started shooting at us five or six times.”
One of the car’s occupants, 17-year-old Juan Carlos Ruiz, was wounded and remains at Delnor Hospital in Geneva.
All police have said about the shooting is that it occurred after an unidentified off-duty officer witnessed a hit-and-run crash early Saturday morning near Route 59 and Dale Avenue in West Chicago. He then followed the offending vehicle to Fermilab where a confrontation and the shooting occurred.
DuPage Sheriff John Zaruba did not return a message Thursday seeking additional information. His spokeswoman, Dawn Domrose, said, “We’re prohibited from talking about this incident per the state’s attorney’s office. We cannot say a word about it. We can’t discuss anything whatsoever.”
State’s Attorney Robert Berlin would not comment Thursday on the account of events by Ruiz and his friends. He said a “thorough” investigation is under way, and no decisions about potential charges would be made until authorities have interviewed all witnesses and examined all evidence.
“The investigation is ongoing, it’s continuing, and we have devoted numerous resources and personnel to review this case,” Berlin said. “It may take some time. It has been a very thorough investigation, and we want to make sure we have all the facts.”
The Ruiz brothers and four friends had left a hotel near Yorktown Center in Lombard late Friday night, headed for a party in Chicago. The driver, 17-year-old Dora Diaz, realized she was lost and headed in the opposite direction. She then attempted to switch lanes, Ruiz said, but the Jeep sped up instead of slowing down to let them in. The driver’s side of the car hit the Jeep, but “the driver felt danger, so she didn’t want to stop. She felt like the best thing to do was keep on driving,” Ruiz said.
The Jeep tried to stop the car from proceeding, but the 17-year-old drove on and a chase ensued. Suddenly, the girl and her passengers found themselves on Fermilab property at a dead-end. When they turned around, the man was outside his Jeep pointing a gun at them, Ruiz said.
As they passed, he said, the man opened fire and shot five or six rounds into the car. The girl kept driving, but the occupants including 24-year-old David Barrera, 19-year-old Rigoberto Romero and 18-year-old Heidi Duran, soon realized Juan Carlos had been shot. They flagged down a Warrenville squad car, Joaquin Ruiz said. An ambulance took between 30 and 45 minutes to arrive, and Juan Carlos had almost passed out by the time it got there, his brother said.
The five other occupants were taken to the DuPage County Sheriff’s office, where they were held about 12 hours for questioning, Ruiz said. Their cellphones, purses and other belongings, including an unopened bottle of alcohol, were taken as evidence and had not been returned as of Thursday afternoon.
The group did not have any open alcohol, drugs or weapons in the car, Ruiz said. They were heading to a party and planning to drink later, but had not begun drinking before the collision, chase and shooting occurred, he said.
Ruiz said the car his brother and their friends were riding in is a testament to the gunfire they endured. He said the first shot was fired at the side of the car and the rest aimed at the trunk or back window, with two bullets making holes through the back seat headrests.
“If we hadn’t ducked, it could have hit somebody in the head,” Ruiz said.
Juan Carlos, sitting in the middle of the back seat, was hit by one bullet that entered his back, exited near his belly button and also grazed his leg, his brother said. The 17-year-old’s kidney was wounded in the shooting and he had to undergo surgery to remove seven inches of his intestines, his brother said.
Juan Carlos is expected to be in the hospital between one and two weeks and wasn’t able to be moved to a conference room Thursday for an interview, Delnor Hospital staff said.
Rosalba Barrera, mother of passenger David Barrera, said she and the Ruiz brothers’ parents intend to press charges and are furious the officer involved in the shooting “is still walking around free.”
“The victims over here are the kids — they are the ones that got shot at,” Barrera said. “He could have killed each and every one of the kids.”
Ÿ Daily Herald staff writer Josh Stockinger contributed to this story.