NEWS RELEASE

RIVERSIDE POLICE DEPARTMENT 31 Riverside Road, Riverside, IL 60546

28 February 2014
Contact:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chief Tom Weitzel
tweitzel@riverside.il.us

708.447.2127

Follow RPD on Twitter @pdriverside

Riverside Police Arrest Juvenile for Shooting Paint-Ball Gun at Residents

Juvenile also damages property
On Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 4:25 p.m., Riverside Police Department received a call of a juvenile disturbance in the 100 block of Lawton Road. The victim advised that a juvenile in a SUV-type vehicle was shooting paintballs at pedestrians as they walked on the street or worked in their yards. The caller was almost struck by paintballs herself as she was in front of her residence. The victim gave a description of the vehicle to the 911 operator including a partial license plate. While the officers were on patrol looking for the offenders, they received a second call at 5:00 p.m. where a resident reported her home was damaged from paintballs on the 200 block of Nuttall Road. As officers were handling both cases, the 911 Center ran the partial license plate through the Riverside Police Departments in-house records data management system and were able to come up with possible offender vehicle. That information was then broadcast to patrol officers and they started to head towards the last known address of where the vehicle had registered to. However, while responding to that address on Harlem a Riverside officer observed the suspect vehicle parked in the 200 block of East Quincy. The officer set up surveillance and a short time later observed an individual go to the car and leave. An officer initiated a traffic stop on the 200 block of East Quincy and took the driver into custody. The driver, a 16-year-old male juvenile of Riverside, had a paint gun in his vehicle and the paint gun balls were the same color as the ones that had damaged property in Riverside and had been shot at pedestrians who were walking on the street. In some cases, the paintballs hit trees near the pedestrians so the police were able to match those colors to the paintball gun recovered from the vehicle. The juvenile driver also admitted that he had been shooting the paintball gun out the window as he drove. Riverside Police contacted the juveniles parents and they came into the police station. The juvenile was charged with one count of disorderly conduct as the individual whose home was damaged did not wish to pursue the matter criminally. Property was also damaged on the 100 block of Delaplaine. Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel stated, The shooting of any type of BB or paintball gun in this situation is extremely dangerous. The paintballs that were recovered by the patrol officers were extremely sturdy in nature and one shot could cause serious damage to an individual especially if hit in the area of the head or eye. This is no small matter and if one of the pedestrians had actually been hit, the juvenile offender would be facing much more serious criminal charges.