Photo by: Provided by CCSO Michael Simmons Image

URBANA — Two Urbana High School teens were arrested and a third taken to the Youth Assessment Center Friday after they were caught allegedly firing BB guns at pedestrians in Champaign and Urbana.

Champaign police Sgt. Bruce Ramseyer said police stopped a dark-colored Chevrolet Traverse about 7:25 p.m. Friday in northwest Urbana after a 56-year-old man reported being hit in the leg with a pellet fired from a gun by people in a passing SUV minutes earlier near the intersection of Market and Washington streets. The man said that he was fired at about 10 times.

In the vehicle, stopped at Goodwin and Eads, were Michael Simmons, 18, of the 1500 block of Curtiss Drive, Ladarius Taylor, 18, of the 1300 block of Harding Drive, and a 17-year-old male, also from Urbana.

Officers found a backpack in the SUV that had three pellet guns inside. Inside the vehicle they found ammunition and pellet cartridges.

Ramseyer said all three admitted to shooting at geese and ducks while at least one teen admitted they fired at people as well.

Simmons and Taylor were arrested for aggravated battery while the third teen was interviewed and released to his parents.

Simmons and Taylor appeared in court Saturday morning and were released from jail after bond court. They are due back in court Monday.

Ramseyer said in addition to the shooting near the TIMES Center, Champaign police also had two other reports from Thursday and Friday.

At 6 p.m. Friday, a bicyclist was hit in the leg by a pellet fired from a passing SUV on North Market Street near Bristol Park.

On Thursday about 3:30 p.m., two 14-year-old boys were walking on Neil Street near Devonshire Drive when the occupant of an SUV at the stoplight at that intersection yelled out to them, “It sure is nice to be able to to cross the street safely, isn’t it?,” Ramseyer recounted.

As the boys crossed Devonshire, they were struck with pellets that came from the Traverse, which headed north on Neil. One boy was hit in the back of the right leg and his back; the other was hit in the palm and will require surgery on Monday to remove the pellet, Ramseyer said.

Urbana police also took four reports on Friday of pedestrians being hit by pellets from a passing vehicle described either as a Traverse or a dark SUV.

— At 3:30 p.m. at at Washington Street and Wabash Avenue, a 13-year-old boy was shot.

— At 5:40 p.m. an adult man was walking in the 1200 block of West Bradley Avenue near Goodwin when he was shot in the elbow.

— At 7:03 p.m., at Broadway Avenue and Thompson Street, a man was shot at but not struck.

— At 7:52 p.m. at Bradley and Goodwin avenues, a woman was shot in the buttocks as she rode her bicycle.

Urbana police also took a report on Thursday from a 12-year-old boy who had been shot with a BB fired from a moving vehicle in the 900 block of South Maple Street about 3:50 p.m.



