COOK COUNTY, IL – A Chicago man has been charged with attempted murder after a Sheriff’s Police investigation found he shot at two motorists during a road rage incident, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
At approximately 11:55 p.m. on May 22, 2022, Sheriff’s Police responded to the 8800 block of West Golf Road where they met a 19-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman, who had been shot in the leg.
Sheriff’s Police detectives learned that the driver of another vehicle pulled out a firearm and fired a shot at the victims’ vehicle during a road rage incident that began in a gas station parking lot in the 9200 block of Golf Road in unincorporated Maine Township.
The offending vehicle had its lights off while pursuing the offenders and drove away after the shooting.
During the course of their investigation, detectives identified the offender as 37-year-old Juan M. Contreras.
An arrest warrant was issued for Contreras on May 30, 2022. On May 9, 2023, a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was approved by a federal judge.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents located Contreras in Lewisburg, Tennessee on June 8 and took him into custody without incident.
After waiving extradition, Contreras returned to Cook County on June 23. Later that day, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved two counts of attempted first degree murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm, and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon against Contreras.
Contreras appeared for a bond hearing today at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building, where a judge ordered him held on a $500,000 D bond with electronic monitoring.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.
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