Kane County Coroner’s Office identifies another body; Elgin Police Chief addresses growing concerns over gun violence

ELGIN – On Oct. 25 at approximately 2:11 a.m., Elgin Police Department officers responded to the 200 block of N. Jackson Street for a report of a shooting.

Upon arrival to the scene, officers located three adult male victims suffering from gunshot wounds. All three victims were transported to area hospitals for treatment.

At 3:37 a.m. on Oct. 25, the Kane County Coroner’s Office received a call from the AMITA St. Joseph Hospital Emergency Room notifying them that one of the shooting victims was deceased.

A second victim sustained a serious injury, with the third victim having sustained what appeared to be a non-life-threatening injury, said the Elgin Police Department.

The Kane County Coroner’s Office later identified the deceased subject as Francisco Reyes-Hernandez, 38, of Schaumburg.

“The preliminary investigation has revealed that several subjects were at the residence and at some point, a verbal altercation ensued resulting in the victims being struck by gunfire. The suspects fled the scene prior to officers’ arrival,” said the Elgin Police Department in a statement.

Reyes-Hernandez was transported to the Kane County Morgue where an autopsy was conducted on Monday, Oct. 25. Toxicology samples were collected at the time of the autopsy and sent to a forensic lab for analysis.

The preliminary cause of death is consistent with a gunshot wound, said the Kane County Coroner’s Office.

Detectives from the Major Investigations Division continue to actively investigate the case and will continue to provide updates as they become available.

Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley recently went on the record during a WRMN 1410 Radio talk segment to speak openly about the public’s growing concern regarding gun violence in Elgin.

“I’m aware of some of the information that obviously is on social media…I heard that there may be some correlation or kind of comparing us to Chicago and we are not Chicago,” Lalley said. “Shooting incidents are on the rise nationally and this has been going on for a couple years and the correlation of does it have something to do with the pandemic, it could be. But there’s also a lot of interpersonal violence and [in] our experience [that] is what we’re seeing.”

Lalley continued by clarifying the various shooting incidents that have been occurring in Elgin.

“What some of those incidents look like prior to the two incidents that happened on [Oct. 24] and [Oct.] 25, we were at nine shooting victims and we had a total of 53 shots fired incidents. So, these two [incidents] obviously propelled it. We are at 55 shots fired incidents year to date. With those 55 incidents, [there were] 15 victims and then the rest of them are just—and when I say ‘just’ that’s not to say it’s not important—the other ones are where we just show up and property is damaged or we find casings,” said Lalley.

She continued, “So [a] vast majority of our shootings there are no victims and, in some instances, nothing is being struck. We just find shell casings…We address it. We work with business owners. We do education. We write citations. We do everything that we possibly can and so in these incidents where there’s some type of interpersonal conflict, it’s hard for us to preempt that because we can do some of the things that we’ve been doing, but it’s hard for us to know when somebody is going to just have an argument that’s going to result in some type of gun violence.”

Lalley ensured residents that detectives from the Major Investigations Division continuously work diligently to solve incidents.

“[The public] may not be happy. We understand that, but we’re doing everything we can within our realm to the end game is to make an arrest. We want to hold people accountable. That’s what we need to do, but it takes a little bit of time but getting information from the community absolutely helps,” she said.

If individuals have any information that may assist in the Oct. 25 shooting incident, the Elgin Police Department urges the public to call 847-289-2600 or text a tip to 847411. Please include “ELGINPD” at the beginning of the text along with the message and/or tip information.