PEORIA —Enough is enough, Peoria's leaders said just hours after the city recorded its 23rd homicide of the year on Monday.
It wasn't the only violence to start the week. Two others were shot overnight Monday into Tuesday, with one of those victims remaining in critical condition.
That, combined with nearly a dozen ShotSpotter gunfire detection alerts in the prior two days,was enough for newly hired police ChiefEric Echevarria to declare he had had it with the violence that's been plaguing Peoria for months.
"I couldn't sleep last night," he declared during a midday newsconference on Tuesday.
More than a dozen officials from Peoria Public Schools, City Hall, the Peoria County State's Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, PCAV and other groups stood behind Echevarria in a show of solidarity.
Pushing back against 'chaos'
"We will not stand for this chaos in our community," Echevarria said. "To our community, I say, the time is now. It is time to act. It is time to come together as one Peoria, to come forward and help stop the violence that is plaguing our city."
The mantra of "if you see something, say something" was his battle cry to push back against incidents in the past week that not only included the shootings, but also a man throwing knives at police officers anda large school fight at Peoria High School that resulted in nine arrests.
Previously:Nine arrested, including seven juveniles, after melee at Peoria High on Friday
The knife-throwing incident occurred in the 3100 block of West Reservoir Boulevard. The man was wanted for several "threatening incidents" and had fled from officers before, Echevarria said. A traffic stop was made, and the man took off on foot and began throwing knives at the officers before he was arrested.
He was "taken to the hospital for an evaluation" and will be charged at a later time,Echevarria said. The chief praised officers' conduct, saying it could have devolved into a "deadly-force" incident, and he used that incident to indicate how members of the police force take their jobs personally and with pride.
Not clear if the violence is linked
Echevarria said he didn't know if the past 24 hours of shootings were related to the Peoria High School fight and declined to comment on any of the shootings, saying they were allactive investigations.
Detectives were talking to "persons of interest" regarding the homicide on Tuesday afternoon after recovering a truck police said had been at the scene, for which they'd been searching throughout the day.
In addition, Echevarria noted thatpolice have seized 266 guns since the beginning of the year. But, he said, there are far more that need to be taken off the streets.
Peoria courts:Insufficient evidence causes court to toss out Peoria man's weapons and drug convictions
Pleading for community members to come forward
Mayor Rita Ali echoed the chief's sentiments.
"Peoria, we are at a breaking point in our community," she said. "It's a point where our situation around the violence has become critical."
People need to come forward if they know who is shooting the guns andcommittingthe crimes, Ali said. Failure to do so, she said flatly, made people part of the problem.
Ali also pledged to bringthe full resources of City Hallto tacklethe problem, though she didn't specify whetherany new programs are planned.
When asked why people would now come forward to help police when past calls were largely ignored,Echevarria said it's a different time now.
"What occurred in the past is in the past," he said. "I want to be able to move forward as the new chief. There is new leadership in place. There is a new mayor, and there are things that we can do now. We are out in the community.We are reaching out to you to ask for that help."
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Investigations and incidents at Peoria schools continue
Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat, the superintendentfor Peoria Public Schools, said after the news conference that the district was continuing its investigation into the large melee at Peoria High that started before school began Friday, continued all morning inside the building and then spilled outside after a fire alarm was activated.
She did confirm that fire alarms were pulled at Trewyn MiddleSchool and Richwoods High School on Tuesday. Both buildings and Peoria High experienced fights on Tuesday, but she characterized the ones at Peoria High and Trewyn as small and typical of teenagers. It wasn't, she said, the full-on brawls seen on Friday.
Andy Kravetz can be reached at 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @andykravetz.
