A Rockford teenager was arrested Monday night after a shooting at a business in the 1000 block of 9th Street, according to the Rockford Police Department. Officers found a spent shell casing near the rear door and recovered a loaded AR-style pistol and ammunition inside the building, and the 18-year-old suspect later admitted he had fired the weapon himself to see if it worked.
Police said officers responded to the scene around 11:50 p.m. Monday after the city's ShotSpotter gunshot detection system flagged shots fired in the area, according to MyStateline. When officers arrived, they encountered three people coming out of the building, including 18-year-old Amarion Dock, according to court records cited in the outlet's reporting.
Officers located the spent casing near the rear door, and investigators went on to recover the loaded pistol along with ammunition from inside the building, per the same account. According to the arrest report, Dock told investigators he had purchased the gun for a friend for $700 and brought it to that friend's residence to test whether it functioned properly.
Single Round, Then a Jam
The arrest report states that Dock fired one round into the air during that test, and the gun jammed immediately afterward. That detail, along with the account of the purchase price, comes from the arrest report as described in MyStateline's reporting.
Dock was ultimately charged with aggravated unlawful possession of a firearm, reckless discharge, and possession of ammunition, the station reported. A separate account from Rockford News First listed an additional charge of possession of a firearm with no serial number; the two reports differ on whether that charge was filed, and court records had not been checked against the discrepancy as of this reporting. Dock is being held in the Winnebago County Jail, and Rockford News First reported his next court date is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Pattern of Shots-Fired Cases in Rockford
The case adds to a string of recent shots-fired investigations around Rockford. In a separate incident reported by Q98.5, police responded to a report of gunfire in the 1000 block of N. Horsman and found a male victim, identified as 18-year-old Tahkarieon Bell, with a gunshot wound to the foot. Bell told police a black sedan pulled up and shot toward him, and officers later recovered a loaded handgun discarded in Garfield Avenue Park as Bell and a 16-year-old fled; Bell was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and obstructing justice, while the juvenile was charged with aggravated use of a weapon.
In another case from last year, 31-year-old Deandre Edwards was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm and possession of a firearm without a firearm owner's ID card after officers responding to a shots-fired call at a Benton Street apartment complex found a spent shell casing nearby, according to Rockford News First. A subsequent search warrant for Edwards' apartment turned up ammunition and two guns, the outlet reported.
