Prosecutors say a woman shot her husband multiple times while he was in bed at their Waukegan home and she had planned to kill her 7-year-old daughter and herself.
The Waukegan Police Department and Waukegan Fire Department responded around 11:30 p.m. on April 26 to the 400 block of Washington Park for a report of a shooting.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Vukovich said 911 dispatchers received a call from a man who repeatedly asked for help and said his wife was armed with a gun.
The man said he was injured and asked dispatchers to send help.
Officers arrived and found the man had been shot multiple times. Vukovich said the victim was struck twice in the back, once on the left side, once on the right side and once on the forearm.
Paramedics transported the man to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville and he survived his injuries.
Officers went into the home and found blood throughout the entire home.
Vukovich said the victim said he had been lying down in bed in his bedroom when he was shot by his wife, Denise Albarran, 37, of Waukegan.
A 9mm handgun, spent shell casings and live ammunition were recovered inside the home.
Albarran told officers she heard the gunshots and the victim calling for help when she was in her daughter’s bedroom.
She also said no one else was inside the residence before or after the shooting except for her, the 7-year-old daughter and her husband, according to Vukovich.
Albarran said she and her husband were having marital problems, Vukovich said. Officers found two letters in a purse outside in a children’s playhouse.
One of the letters said Albarran was going to kill herself and her daughter because she did not want her daughter to live without her mother, Vukovich said.
Vukovich said Albarran was ranting in the second letter about her life and her marital problems.
Albarran was charged with aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm, a Class X felony, and aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Albarran pending court proceedings.
Attorney Gregory Nikitas, who is representing the woman, said his client suffers from significant mental health issues and has no prior criminal background.
During a detention hearing last week, Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak granted the state’s petition to detain the woman pending trial, saying Albarran’s plan appeared to be murder-suicide and that she was a threat to others.
The judge also questioned why the state’s attorney’s office did not charge Albarran with attempted murder.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled in the case for May 29.