PEORIA, Ill. — Local officials spoke Monday afternoon about the violent actions that took place over night.
Peoria Police Chief Loren Marion III said the events that took place such as arson, looting, vandalism, and others are unacceptable.
“And it will not be tolerated,” Marion said.
Events took place between 10:30 p.m. Sunday until around 5:15 a.m. Monday.
“We had 23 ShotSpotter alerts with 87 rounds that were fired. One of the things we know is that the individuals were trying to separate the police because we did have the department well staffed,” Marion said.
There were a total of 12 fires that happened overnight, 11 were arson.
“Those happened between 11:10 p.m. and 12:28 this morning,” Marion said.
Marion said there were 14 incidents with criminal damage to property.
“A lot of those are still unreported or they’re coming in as we speak today because alarms didn’t get set off so officers didn’t respond to those locations,” Marion said.
Overnight there were 27 completed business burglaries.
“But, looking at the dispatch records there were 49 calls for business burglaries,” Marion said.
A shooting also took place at Sheridan and Columbia Terrace around 1:22 a.m., with two adult male victims.
“At this time they are in non-life threatening conditions,” Marion said.
A K-9 officer and the K-9 were involved in an accident just after 2:30 a.m. at Spring and Jefferson.
“A vehicle that was traveling at a high rate of speed went through a red light and struck the officer,’ Marion said.
The officer was taken to a local hospital with in serious condition and the driver of the vehicle was also taken to a hospital with life threatening injuries.
The officer and the K-9 are recovering.
State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos encouraged business owners to not take the law into their own hands.
“It only gets worse from there,” Hoos said.
Individuals were arrested during the overnight hours, and Hoos said they will be charged.
“We will absolutely charge anybody who resorts to violence and resorts to crime, because that is not what our society is about. Our society is about peaceful protests,” Hoos said.
Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell is concerned managing these events with the jail with increased arrests.
“Don’t forget, we’re still in a health pandemic as well too,” Asbell said.
