Lake Barrington neighbors unnerved by Rt. 14 shooting
Neighbors of a Lake Barrington rental house where a large party was held Saturday night were unnerved to learn some of the partygoers were involved in a shooting a few hours later in nearby Barrington.
Three men who attended the party on the 500 block of Welch Circle were charged Wednesday in connection with a shooting about five miles away on Route 14 in Barrington in which other partygoers were wounded.
“What irked me, when I heard about the shooting - you're talking 3 or 4 in the morning, my granddaughters are sleeping in the bedroom - it could be a stray bullet,” said Scott Capinegro, who has lived on Welch Circle in Lake Barrington for 40 years. “No, that's not this neighborhood.”
Capinegro called police late Saturday night when he saw dozens of cars parked up and down his street and nearby cul-de-sacs. Vehicles are supposed to be parked on one side of the street only.
Lake County Undersheriff Ray Rose said officers saw between 50 and 75 cars on the street - many that could have impeded traffic or emergency vehicles from getting through. Officers went to the house and asked people to move their cars, and they complied, Rose said.
Neighbors did not complain about the party itself, and one neighbor even said he was given a heads-up about the party and told to call if it got loud, so he wasn't worried.
Two hours later, around 3 a.m., two cars containing partygoers were involved in an altercation on Route 14 at Shorely Drive in Barrington. Shots were fired from one car into another, wounding both the driver and a passenger.
Sherron P. Reed Jr., 20, Brandon D. Campbell, 21, and Justin L. Crowder, 19, all of Joliet, have been charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Prosecutors say the three men became angry when the second car swerved into their lane. Reed is accused of firing an AR-15 assault rifle 10 times from the back seat of a blue Chevrolet Malibu, as Campbell drove and Crowder was a front-seat passenger.
One victim, a 21-year-old man, was shot in the face, while the other, a 19-year-old, was injured by shrapnel, officials said. Their car then struck a railroad gate where the Canadian National tracks cross Route 14.
Neighbors of the Lake Barrington house said Thursday they didn't hear a lot of noise or loud music coming from the house last Saturday night - they just saw a lot of cars and people going inside. And police say there wasn't any indication the party was out of control or there was anything criminal going on - just illegally parked cars.
But when neighbors heard about the shooting, it gave them pause that it might have happened in their normally quiet neighborhood.
“When I heard about the shooting, it was kinda scary,” said Lisa Jones, who has lived across the street from the house for 30 years. “I wasn't happy.”
Neighbors said it also worries them to think of who might be staying in the rental house.
The owner of the house, Tammy Wolf, said she's been renting it to make some income while she tries to find a buyer. An ordinance passed by the Lake Barrington village board Wednesday now bars homeowners from renting their properties for less than three months at a time.
Frank Donovan, a 25-year resident of Welch Circle, said he wasn't concerned about the party last weekend - especially since two people who were throwing it rang his doorbell earlier Saturday to tell him about it.
Donovan said one of the hosts offered to provide his cellphone number to call him if the party got too loud.
“I thought it was decent of them to give a warning,” Donovan said.
Daily Herald staff writer Doug T. Graham contributed to this report.