• 2025-10-01 15:29:50
• Gun Violence

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak has ruled that Joliet criminal defendant Edgar Chavers meets the dangerousness standard of the Illinois SAFE-T-Act following his recent capture by the Joliet police in connection with a road rage shooting near the Louis Joliet Mall along Route 30.

Last week, after a two-month-long Joliet police investigation, prosecutors charged Chavers with aggravated discharge of a gun.

According to the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition to deny pretrial release, on July 19, a man was driving a Black Dodge Charger with three little children as his passengers, and a woman was driving a grey Chevy Cruz, with three child passengers as well. Both vehicles spotted a silver Kia SUV tailgating the woman's vehicle and the tailgater followed closely for about eight minutes, while using its high beams as they drove the speed limit along Plainfield Road, court records show.

Joliet police found out that the Kia SUV tried several times to pass the two vehicles in a reckless manner, trying to weave into oncoming traffic. Eventually, all three vehicles came to a stop at Plainfield Road and Mall Loop Drive.

After a brief argument over the Kia's reckless driving, the vehicles proceeded west on Plainfield Road toward I-55 when Chavers rolled down his window and fired a single gunshot into the vehicle driven by the woman, according to prosecutors. The bullet struck the car's rear passenger door where one of the small children were seated in a child car seat.

Joliet police later recovered the projectile from the door. No spent shell casing was recovered in the area of the shot. One of the drivers told Joliet police he could positively identify the shooter if he saw him again.

Joliet police observed the FLOCK license plate reader cameras and found a vehicle that matched the description given by the victims. Joliet police figured out that Edgar Chavers was cited with three tickets in the same vehicle on July 2. Prosecutors noted that Chavers was positively identified by one of the other drivers as the shooter from the July 19 incident on Plainfield Road.

Finally, on Sept. 11, Joliet detectives went to a residence in the 1100 block of Gael Street to speak with the owner of the Kia used in the incident. Officers met with the owner Theresa Gant, who stated her daughter Rickeya Gant uses her vehicle. According to prosecutors, on September 16, Joliet's officers met with Rickeya and she acknowledged the road rage incident. Gant also stated that defendant Edgar Chavers was in the vehicle at the time. Rickeya indicated that the other driver displayed a gun and that she heard a shot come from her own vehicle, but that she was unsure who fired the weapon. She also stated that she saw a gun inside of her vehicle after they stopped, the court records show.