Fugitive had frequented bar where he was shot by police
A murder suspect shot dead in a confrontation with police Saturday outside a Lake County bar had been frequenting the establishment in the days leading up to the shooting, telling employees he was in town to settle his dead brother's estate.
Denise Peterson, a bartender at Toppers Sports Bar, said she served Gerald R. Boyes on three occasions and spoke with him about his brother, a former bar regular who was struck and killed in August by a woman accused of drunken driving.
“He was telling me he was a surgeon,” Peterson said, adding that Boyes didn't cause any trouble in the bar. “He claimed he was settling his brother's affairs, selling his brother's house.”
Authorities say Boyes, 53, of Jacksonville, Florida, was shot to death shortly after midnight Saturday outside the bar at 26211 Route 173, during a confrontation with Lake and McHenry county sheriff's deputies who had gone there to arrest him.
At the time of his death, Boyes was a fugitive from Florida, where he was wanted for a probation violation, and was a suspect in last week's slayings of his father and his father's longtime girlfriend in McCracken County, Kentucky, according to police.
The Lake County Major Crime Task Force continues to investigate the shooting, Assistant Cmdr. Tom Nugent said Sunday. He said interviews with the deputies involved won't happen until later this week.
“As far as the shooting is concerned, we are truth seekers,” Nugent said. “We are not in a position to make judgments. All we do is find out whatever facts we possibly can and turn them over to the state's attorney's office. They examine the facts and decide what, if any, action is appropriate.
“My expectation is it will take several weeks to gather all the data, including the autopsy, which hasn't even been done yet,” he added.
The Lake County coroner's office is scheduled to perform an autopsy Monday.
Authorities said Saturday that Boyes was shot and killed in the bar's parking lot after waving a gun from inside a vehicle that had been reported stolen in Florida. A gun was recovered at the scene, police said.
Nugent said Sunday that while Boyes was in possession of a gun, “I have no evidence that he did anything other than possess it right now.”
“We're not making any assumptions at this point. We know that the officers shot. We don't know that the officers killed him,” he added.
Nugent said he did not know what investigators believe Boyes was doing in Lake County, saying the task force is focusing on the shooting itself.
Peterson said Boyes would talk in the bar about his younger brother, Gregory Boyes, and how he was killed while riding his motorcycle in a crash blamed on a DUI suspect. She said he mentioned the court case of the Leena A. Ultsch, the 34-year-old Antioch Township woman charged in Gregory Boyes' death.
She said he also showed people a photo of his brother and father.
Authorities in Kentucky say Gerald Boyes was a suspect in the April 11 killings of his father, 73-year-old Gerald Boyes, and Billie Potter, 67. McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden said Saturday that Boyes had an “extremely strained” relationship with his father, who was found beaten to death along with Potter in their home.
On Sunday, Hayden said evidence recovered from Boyes and the stolen vehicle, including clothes he may have been wearing April 11, has firmed up the belief that he committed the double homicide.
“We had been told by several family members at least they believe the motive was for financial reasons,” he said.
McCracken County investigators traced Boyes to Illinois after he pawned his father's “very distinctive” wallet at Sterling and Knight Jewelry & Pawn in Villa Park, Hayden said. That eventually led authorities to Toppers, where they planned to arrest him.