
A shootout in a neighborhood in Waukegan resulted in one of the alleged gunmen being shot in the chest, 54 shots being fired and numerous houses being struck by gunfire.
The Waukegan Police Department responded on November 27 to a call of shots fired in the area of Lyons Court and Elmwood Avenue.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Nicholas Shepherd said a woman reported multiple shots fired and a house struck by gunfire.
Bullet holes were found on the side of her residence. Another resident captured audio of the shooting on his camera.
The resident said he heard multiple gunshots being fired and two males running eastbound on Lyons Court, Shepherd said.
Another resident reported two of his cars had been struck by gunfire in the 1700 block of Lyons Court.
Another resident in the 1600 block of Lyons Court said he noticed his home was being struck by gunfire while hearing the shots, Shepherd said. He grabbed his two-year-old daughter and sought cover.
Officers found multiple spent shell casings from a rifle and pistol. 35 casings were recovered in one location and an additional 19 were recovered in a second location for a total of 54 casings.
Officers were then called to the 300 block of South Lincoln Avenue in Waukegan for a person shot in the chest.
The subject, Alexis Diaz, 19, of North Chicago, who was in the back of an ambulance being treated.
Shepherd said Diaz was transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
He suffered a gunshot wound to the right of his chest, which went through and through, and a gunshot wound to his right
Diaz told detectives that he “never got justice” for what happened to his brother and that he “took things into his own hands,” Shepherd said.
When asked how he got shot, Diaz said he believed “they” shot back during the incident, Shepherd said.
Shepherd said Diaz told detectives he had an AR pistol and a handgun in his car and that he was with one of his friends during and after the shooting.
Video surveillance showed two males exiting a Toyota Corolla and running up to where the shell casings were later found. One of the subjects matched Diaz’s description, Shepherd said.
Diaz was charged on December 5 with four counts of unlawful possession of a weapon without a Firearm Owner’s Identification or concealed carry license, which are Class 4 felonies. He was arrested on the warrant on December 26.
While Shepherd said Diaz admitted to possessing the guns and that he used the rifle to shoot at others in a residential neighborhood in the middle of the day, prosecutors never charged him with committing the shooting.
Lake County Judge James Newman granted a petition to detain Diaz pending trial after prosecutors sought his detainment.
The judge, visibly angered during a detention hearing, told Diaz, who has a young child, that he should know better and that “guns are not like Nerf bullets” and could have harmed the residents, including the two-year-old child whose home was struck by gunfire.
Newman said Diaz poses a danger to the community and no conditions of release could mitigate the threat.
“You’ve shown you had one and only one goal in this instance. And that was perhaps to get back to something that happened to you. Now there’s another shooting… and you’re the one that got shot this time,” the judge said, calling the incident a “wild west situation.”
Diaz is scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday for a preliminary hearing.