A member of the U.S. military was charged Sunday in the deadly shooting at an Illinois bowling alley – a random assault that also saw a 14-year-old boy fight for his life after being shot in the face, officials said.
Suspect Duke Webb, 37, of Florida is facing three murders and three first-degree murder attempts in Saturday’s shooting in Rockford, Winnebago County attorney J. Hanley said.
Webb is an active member of the military and is being held without a bond at the Winnebago County Jail, the Rockford Register Star said.
“We think this was a completely arbitrary act, and there is no prior meeting or relationship of any kind between the suspect and the victims in this case,” police chief Dan O’Shea said according to the local newspaper.
The allegations emerged when officials revealed that the three people who died in the attack at Shooters Bar, part of the Don Carter Lanes, were all men aged 65, 69 and 73. None had yet been identified.
A 14-year-old boy was also shot in the face and in critical condition after being flown to a hospital in Madison, O’Shea said at a news conference Sunday morning.
Another teenager, a 16-year-old girl, was shot in the shoulder, while a 62-year-old man is in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, the chief said.
Both teenagers had been at the bar to get take out, the chef said.
Webb had tried to hide his weapons when police arrived but was taken into custody within minutes, O’Shea said.
Two small arms were removed from the scene, he said.
“Most of the incident was captured on surveillance video from the company,” O’Shea said, according to the Register Star. “The researchers have the surveillance videos, and they will go through them.”
The mass shooting ended the deadliest year on record in Rockford, with 35 murders in 2020, the paper said. Such crime statistics date back to 1965, the paper said.
With Post Wires