Five charged in shooting at Rockford Speedway

LOVES PARK, Ill. (WIFR) - An 18-year-old from Rockford and four juveniles face several charges after a Saturday shooting and high-speed chase through Loves Park.

Laterrence Gatlin, 18, is charged with a number of weapons and traffic offenses including unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing to a elude and resisting a peace officer. Police believe he was the driver of a vehicle stolen out of Chicago that took off after multiple gunshots rang out June 3 in the Rockford Speedway parking lot.

Another boy faces aggravated battery - discharge of a machine gun, mob action and other weapons charges after detectives say he shot someone with a machine gun.

The Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office says the other three juveniles face related, but lesser, charges.

Loves Park officers patrolling the grounds of the Rockford Speedway say they heard two bursts of shots and saw a suspect pointing a gun with a black extended magazine across the parking lot. The officers reportedly ordered the boy to “drop the gun” and that’s when he took off toward a car waiting in a parking lot across Rte. 173.

Officers chased the vehicle west through Loves Park and Rockford, with the suspect vehicle allegedly going nearly 100 mph in a 30 mph zone and ignoring traffic lights and stop signs. When the car reached the intersection of Halsted Rd. and N. Central Ave. in Rockford, it crashed into another vehicle. Two people inside the vehicle were treated for minor injuries.

Stop sticks were deployed near the intersection of N. Central and Kilburn avenues and police say that’s when Gatlin lost control of the vehicle, hit a tree and rolled over. The shooting suspect was ejected from the car and reportedly had a Glock 19 with a machine gun conversion device or “switch” on him. Officers arrested Gatlin, the suspected shooter and the three others inside.

Gatlin is being held at the Winnebago County jail on a $75,000 bond.