UPDATED: ( 4 p.m. Friday) — Several Peoria police officers and a Peoria County Sheriff’s deputy were in South Peoria investigating a ShotSpotter alert when someone apparently shot at them.
Reports filed Friday at the Peoria Police Department indicated officers had responded to 2400 block of West Ann Street, a block away from Manual High School, after the gunfire detection system indicated 8 rounds had been fired off just before 7:30 p.m.
While the officer who wrote up the ShotSpotter report was searching the area for evidence, six other officers and the deputy were standing in the road when “‘two whizz-like noises’ were heard traveling from west to east . . .,” according to a second report.
That second report stated “a slight disturbance could be felt in the air as the projectiles traveled by. No gunshots were heard.” When officers moved west to try to find evidence, they found nothing.
A dispatcher said there was an “activation” four blocks away on Ann Street but that were listed as “not gunfire.’ That’s near an apartment complex in the 2800 block of West Ann Street and about a block west of the high school.
Where Ann Street intersects with South Oregon Street, officers found two shell casings, the second report said.
The initial call, the one in the 2400 block of West Ann Street, led to nine 9mm shell casings being found. A window at a house was found have been struck as well.
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PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The county’s top cop said that one of his deputies heard “bullets whizzing over his head” Thursday night in South Peoria.
That’s what Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins said on Friday, about 13 hours after the incident in the 2400 block of West Ann Street.
Watkins said his deputy was responding to an alert from the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system when he and an unknown number of Peoria Police Officers heard “gunfire directed towards their location.” Watkins said the deputy reported he could hear the bullets whizzing over his head.
Semone Roth of the Peoria Police Department said one round had been fired, according to ShotSpotter alert which she said came just before 8 p.m. near Ann Street and West Griswold Street. That intersection is directly across from Manual High School.
No one was reportedly injured but one vehicle did have a window shot.
The sheriff said there has been an increase in the number of incidents that deputies have been shot at. According to Watkins, since 2019, there have been six incidents and eight deputies who have reported gunfire towards them.
“Prior to 2019, I couldn’t tell you the last time one of our deputies had been shot at and I’ve been here for 20 years. There’s definitely an uptick in violence against our deputies,” he said.
The matter is being handled by Peoria police, who are investigating the matter.
Officers are evaluating evidence recovered at the scene, Roth said.
