A second suspect has been arrested after two gunmen exchanged shots, leaving one of the suspects as well as a woman wounded, outside an apartment building in Waukegan.
The Waukegan Police Department and Waukegan Fire Department responded around 9:50 p.m. on March 30 to Lakeside Tower Apartments, 200 Julian Street, for a report of a shooting.
911 dispatchers reported two people were shot at the apartment building and a third victim was across the street in the 400 block of North Genesee Street.
Officers arrived and found two people who had been shot, according to Waukegan Deputy Police Chief Scott Chastain. A third victim was not located.
One of the victims, a 22-year-old woman, was shot in the stomach and right arm.
She was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where she went into surgery, Chastain said. Her condition was later stabilized.
The second subject wounded, an 18-year-old man, was shot in the leg.
He was transported by ambulance to a local hospital and was listed as stable in the hospital.
The two subjects were outside of the apartment building when they were shot, Chastain said.
Chastain said the woman was in a car and the man was on foot when the gunfire rang out.
A pickup truck parked outside of Lakeside Tower had been struck by gunfire and was towed from the scene.
Gunfire also struck the front of the apartment building, shattering the glass windows of the front lobby.
Crime scene tape was set up around the front of the building, including the parking garage entrance.
Court records show detectives obtained warrants for the arrests of Nazir Plaines, 18, of Waukegan, and Clarence J. Murdock, 22, of Waukegan, on April 11, less than two weeks after the shooting.
Prosecutors approved charges against Plaines for aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm, a Class X felony, and aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony.
Prosecutors approved charges against Murdock for aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm, two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, two counts of felon in possession of a firearm and four counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Plaines was arrested in April and Murdock was recently arrested this month.
Prosecutors said Plaines was walking behind two individuals when he pulled out a gun and began shooting at the occupied pickup truck, striking the female victim in the stomach.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen McConnell said the woman had been in the driver’s seat of the pickup truck with Murdock, who was in the passenger seat and reportedly grabbed a firearm from his backpack.
Surveillance video captured an “explosion of gunfire,” McConnell said, adding that evidence in the video was consistent with Murdock firing shots at the group. It is unclear who fired shots first.
Shell casings were recovered from the floorboard where Murdock was sitting.
McConnell said Murdock was seen on video running away from the truck before coming back to retrieve his backpack from the truck after the shooting.
Plaines told investigators that the man in the vehicle had shot him first, which led to him returning fire, McConnell said.
Shots struck the lobby of the apartment building. Two children standing in the lobby had to duck for cover when the gunfire erupted, McConnell said.
“The defendant is extremely lucky that no one — neither the person he hit, the person he was driving around with, or two of the innocent children that were just standing in the lobby — were killed,” McConnell said.
Murdock was on parole at the time of the shooting following a four-year prison sentence he received for aggravated robbery with a firearm. He also has other convictions in his background.
Plaines is a convicted felon from a 2023 juvenile case and has several other prior criminal cases, including for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Plaines and Murdock were both ordered held in the Lake County Jail pending trial.