On Jan. 27, within 90 minutes of allegedly shooting and injuring a 17-year-old, Aurora police had Roberto Lopez in custody and charged in connection with the crime.
Of the more than 40 shootings to occur throughout Aurora this year, only a handful have been solved, but Aurora police credited the work of Community Oriented Policing Officers Marco Gomez and Greg Spayth with cracking this case.
Both Gomez and Spayth were honored as Employees of the Month for April by the Aurora Police Department for using knowledge of their neighborhoods to garner an arrest in the shooting.
It was around 3:45 p.m. near Jackson Street and Seventh Avenue on Jan. 27 when the shooting occurred. Aurora police said someone inside a Chrysler SUV fired a weapon at the 17-year-old victim and struck him in the buttocks.
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The SUV turned westbound onto Seventh Avenue from Jackson Street and drove away.
When they got word of the SUV’s description, Gomez and Spayth tossed around the names of several possible suspects. Then, they began to patrol the areas where these suspects lived, police said.
“These officers know who’s committing these types of crimes,” Aurora Police Department spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. “Knowing and proving are two very different things.”
In this case, police believed they could do both.
While patrolling, Gomez and Spayth located a vehicle that matched the SUV description in the 800 block of Columbia Street and contacted the registered owner. They were told that Lopez was driving the vehicle at the time when the shooting occurred, and at 5:15 p.m. he was taken in for questioning.
The SUV’s owner gave police permission to search the vehicle, which turned up a shell casing that matched the caliber of bullet used in the shooting. A felony charge of aggravated battery with a firearm was then approved by the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office against Lopez.
“Due to the superior observation and investigative skills of Officers Gomez and Spayth, a suspect will be held accountable for his actions in a shooting,” Aurora Police Chief Greg Thomas said.
Spayth has been with the department for 16 years and Gomez has been with the department for nearly 10 years.
“All of our patrol officers work regular areas on a daily basis so that they know the people and what should be going on,” Ferrelli said. “This case shows the effectiveness of intelligence and community-oriented policing, which are at the heart of our policing philosophies.”