Normal Police early Wednesday morning responded to a call of shots fired at the intersection of Main and Willow streets, near the Illinois State University campus. Responding officers ended up chasing down an SUV and then pursuing the suspects on foot. Two men were arrested, though one was later released.
Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said officers later discovered that the SUV had been stolen from Chicago in a carjacking. One of the men arrested was also from Chicago.
Petrilli said that doesn't point to any larger connection between rates of crime in Chicago and local incidents.
“At this point, I can't say that I've seen anything unusual as far as an uptick in that trend, or that there's definitely a nexus between Chicago crime and what's happening in Bloomington, Illinois,” Petrilli said.
Petrilli said crime from Chicago does not seem to be spilling over into Bloomington-Normal.
“Really, this is an isolated incident. When you look at the amount of incidents that we've had in Normal this year, I wouldn't say that this is anything outside of the ordinary.”
As to the perception that gun crimes, in general, tend to be ticking up in the area, Petrilli says he doesn't necessarily see that either.
“The couple of incidents that we’ve had appear to be isolated in nature. And I don't see any type of trends at this point that, ‘Hey, we've got an increase in violent crime or an increase in gun crime.’ I'm not there yet, that I could say that there's a major uptick at this point.”
Petrilli said no one was injured in Wednesday's incident. The suspect faces weapons and robbery charges.
