A restaurant argument in Chicago escalated into gunfire on the Eisenhower Expressway two months ago, and now two Chicago men are facing attempted murder charges over it. Thomas T. Beauchamp, 34, and Charles Mojica, 38, were taken into custody on August 17 and August 11, respectively, after Illinois State Police issued warrants accusing them of shooting at another driver's car on westbound I-290 at Morgan Avenue.
According to CBS Chicago, the confrontation began when the victim argued with one of the two men at a restaurant. That dispute didn't stay there — one of the men allegedly followed the victim onto the expressway, and shots were fired at the victim's car just after 2:30 a.m. on June 19. No one was injured in the shooting, but both Beauchamp and Mojica now face attempted murder charges as they await their first court appearances.
The arrests came nearly two months after the shooting itself, following an investigation by Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 1 special agents, who identified Beauchamp and Mojica as suspects, according to a statement from Illinois State Police Investigations posted to Facebook. Warrants for both men were issued on August 5.
What the Charges Could Mean
Attempted first-degree murder is a Class X felony under Illinois law, carrying a sentencing range of 6 to 30 years in prison, according to the Illinois General Assembly's criminal code. If prosecutors can show that a defendant personally discharged a firearm during the offense, state sentencing guidelines add a mandatory 20-year enhancement on top of that base term — a consecutive sentence rather than a concurrent one.
Because attempted murder is classified as a forcible felony, Beauchamp and Mojica are also subject to Illinois's Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail statewide in 2023. Under that law, prosecutors must petition a judge at a detention hearing to hold a defendant without release ahead of trial, according to Illinois Legal Aid Online — the mechanism likely keeping both men in custody as they await their first court dates.
A Camera Network Built for Cases Like This
Investigators on Cook County's expressways increasingly lean on a network of nearly 300 automated license plate reader cameras, deployed under the Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act, which Illinois State Police enacted in 2020 and named for a U.S. Postal Service worker fatally shot on I-57 in 2019. State lawmakers extended that program through 2028 in 2025 and broadened its authorized uses to include human trafficking investigations alongside forcible felonies, according to WIXY.com, with state law enforcement citing a 100% solve rate in Cook County expressway homicides in 2023 as justification for the expansion.
Those cameras are part of a broader enforcement push that has included substantial gun seizures. Illinois State Police troopers seized 204 illegal firearms and made 1,249 arrests on Chicago-area expressways in just the first six months of 2024 alone through the department's Statewide Anti-Violence Enforcement Unit.
A Rare Incident Amid a Statewide Decline
The June shooting stands out against a broader trend: total shootings on Illinois interstates fell 31% in 2025 compared to the year before, part of an 80% drop from a post-pandemic peak of 310 shootings in 2021 down to 61 last year, according to Illinois State Police. For the first time in roughly a decade, the state recorded zero fatal interstate shootings in 2025, a steep decline from 12 fatal shootings in 2024, 10 in 2023, and 28 in 2021. State officials attribute the sustained drop to targeted patrols, air operations, and license plate reader technology, even as non-fatal incidents like the I-290 shooting continue to occur.
The Eisenhower Expressway has seen its share of gun violence this year. In May, a motorcyclist was shot near California Avenue on I-290, hours before a separate multi-car crash struck the same stretch of highway, as Hoodline previously reported. In March, another shooting shut down outbound I-290 lanes near Homan Avenue overnight while investigators worked the scene.
Prosecutors elsewhere in the region have shown a similar pattern of charging attempted murder even when shots miss their target. In July, Illinois State Police arrested a 24-year-old Chicago Heights man on attempted murder charges after a road-rage shooting on a Stevenson Expressway ramp left no one injured — a case that, like the I-290 shooting, resulted in severe felony charges despite the absence of physical harm.
