Chicago police on Tuesday charged a 26-year-old Gage Park man in connection with a September shooting on the Southwest Side that followed an argument and left another man in serious condition, authorities said.
Arrest and charges
According to Fox 32 Chicago, officers identified the suspect as 26-year-old David Gutierrez and say the gunfire broke out around 10 p.m. on Sept. 11 in the 5100 block of South Campbell Avenue. During the argument, police allege, Gutierrez shot a 24-year-old man in the chest. The victim was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.
Gutierrez was arrested Tuesday afternoon in the Marquette Park neighborhood, police said. He faces counts of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with discharge of a firearm, serious felony charges that could send him away for a long time if prosecutors win a conviction.
Earlier arrests on the block
CBS Chicago reported in September that officers had already arrested 29-year-old Selena Vargas on an aggravated-battery-with-a-firearm charge tied to a shooting on the same block, suggesting more than one person may have been involved in the violence there. That earlier report described a chaotic scene and noted that some details were still murky as detectives worked the case.
It was not immediately clear whether the charges announced this week against Gutierrez are formally connected to the earlier arrest of Vargas or whether prosecutors are pursuing parallel cases that stem from the same stretch of South Campbell Avenue.
What the charges carry
Under Illinois law, an attempt to commit first-degree murder is typically prosecuted as a Class X felony, among the most serious categories in the state’s criminal code. Sentences can increase significantly when a firearm is involved. The Illinois Compiled Statutes lay out added prison time if a defendant is armed with a gun or personally fires it during an attempted murder.
How prosecutors and defense attorneys argue Gutierrez’s intent and reconstruct the timeline of the South Campbell shooting is expected to be central when the case lands in court for a detention hearing.
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