Random Stranger Shoots Lost Teen In Chest: Cops

CRETE, IL — A gunman opened fire on two women and two children sitting in a car after they got lost and pulled over to figure out where they were, police said.

The two women, ages 18 and 29, and the older woman’s two children, ages 6 and 7, got lost Friday night and stopped to use a GPS.

While they were on the side of the road, a complete stranger “approached the vehicle, pulled out a handgun, asked them what they were doing there and shot into the vehicle,” police said.

The older woman, who was driving, took off, and the teen informed her she had been shot in the chest. They stopped again to call 911, and the teen was taken to St. James Hospital. She was treated and released from care.

Will County deputies investigating a report of shots fired on Broadview came across 18-year-old Alexander Taylor, who told them he “noticed an occupied vehicle near an abandoned residence next door to his rented residence,” police said.

“He went outside to see who it was, walked up to the vehicle, and someone inside the vehicle shot at him so he went back inside his house,” police said.

Neighbors reportedly mentioned seeing Taylor armed with a handgun. The owner of the home Taylor rents allowed deputies to search it, police said, and they found ammunition and an unspecified number of firearms.

The deputies connected Taylor to the wounded teen at St. James and placed him under arrest, police said.

“Detectives believe that the victims had no knowledge of who Alexander Taylor was,” according to the police.

Taylor was taken to the Will County jail. He remained in custody Monday.

Alexander Taylor | image via Will County Sheriff's Department