Teen convicted of fatally shooting 2 near Bradley University

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - A central Illinois teenager has been convicted in a 2018 shooting that killed two people and wounded a third at a fraternity party near the Bradley University campus.

A Peoria County jury found Jermontay Brock, 18, guilty Thursday of all four counts he had faced, including first-degree murder charges, WEEK-TV reported.

The South Peoria man will be sentenced Oct. 14, for the deaths of Anthony Polnitz, 22, and Nasjay Murry, an 18-year-old woman who was a pre-med student at Bradley. Another woman was shot in the hand in the April 8, 2018, shooting at the party in Peoria.

Prosecutors said Brock, who was then 16, opened fire at the party because he wanted to make a name for himself within the Bomb Squad - a local street gang - when he saw a rival gang member at the party.

Murry's parents, Tarrano Murry and Natalie Hilton, said they were relieved that justice was served and that the person who killed their daughter would remain behind bars for a long time, The (Peoria) Journal Star reported.

But Hilton told said Brock's convictions didn't help with the pain of losing a daughter.

Polnitz's father, Evester Polnitz, said after the jury's verdict that justice had 'œprevailed in the end."

'œI'm always going to have to talk to my son from the grave. As time goes on, I can probably forgive... but no, I can never move on,'ť he said.

Brock's four-day trial was spread out over a month. The presiding judge continued the case late last month after several positive COVID-19 cases were reported at the Peoria County Jail.