A 21-year-old Aurora man has been charged in connection with Wednesday’s shootout with police on the city’s Near East Side, while another man arrested after the incident was charged with a parole violation, police said Friday.
Jorge L. Guzman, 21, of the 800 block of Superior Street, Aurora, is accused of pointing a gun at two plainclothes Aurora police officers, then exchanging gunfire with one of them and at least two other officers.
Guzman is charged with four counts of attempted murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm while ineligible for a FOID card. Of the charges, filed Friday in Kane County, 10 are Class X felonies, one is a Class 1 felony and one is a Class 3 felony, according to court records.
Bail is set at $4 million for Guzman.
While police initially reported officers only shot back after they were fired upon, on Thursday they announced an officer had actually fired the first shot after Guzman allegedly pointed a gun at an unmarked squad car the officer was sitting in.
On Wednesday morning, several community policing officers were conducting an undercover operation in plainclothes, but wearing body armor that identified them as police officers, police said in a statement published on Facebook.
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The officers, in three separate unmarked vehicles, were part of an operation targeting home burglaries and related gang activity on the 900 block of Grove Street, police said.
Officers were watching a gray 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer driving eastbound on Grove Street at about 10:50 a.m. when it stopped in front of a home on the 900 block of the street. Guzman got out, ran toward an unmarked minivan with two plainclothes officers inside, and pointed a gun at one of them, police said.
The other officer rolled down a window and announced they were the police.
Guzman stumbled backward, then continued advancing on the officers with his gun pointed toward them, according to charging documents.
“Fearing for his life and the life of his partner, the officer who announced they were the police fired several rounds at Guzman who returned fire,” police said in the statement Friday.
Guzman, who found cover behind a tree, is accused of continuing to shoot at the officers’ minivan while they drove backward “in an attempt to take up a safer tactical position,” police said. Two officers in another unmarked vehicle also shot at Guzman, police said.
Meanwhile, a 1993 Toyota Corolla with two men inside drove up to the scene.
Guzman ran to the Corolla and got in the back seat, joining the 21-year-old driver and 20-year-old front-seat passenger, police said.
During the shooting, a bullet struck the front seat passenger in the leg, police said.
In an apparent attempt to get away, the Corolla driver backed the car into a telephone pole at a high speed, police said. The car crumpled against the pole.
Police said they took all three men inside the Corolla into custody without further incident, and recovered the gun Guzman was allegedly using.
The Mitsubishi, driven by a 15-year-old boy, also started to drive away, but was stopped about a block away, on the 900 block of Superior Street. The boy was taken into custody, while two passengers ran away, police said.
Police said they apprehended Jose Mondragon, 20, of the 900 block of Fourth Avenue, nearby at Ohio Street and Indian Avenue and “believe they may know the identity” of the other man who ran away.
Though he has not been charged in connection with the shooting, Mondragon was charged with violating his parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Mondragon, Guzman and the man shot in the leg were treated and released from area hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. Guzman sustained injuries consistent with the Corolla crash, and Mondragon had cuts, scrapes and a graze wound, according to police, who said they didn’t know if the graze wound was from police gunfire or one of the suspects.
No officers were hit in the shooting and no other injuries were reported, police said.