Top 10 KCC Stories of 2017 — No. 7: Fatal Crash Related to Shootings
- Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series counting down the top 10 Kane County Connects stories of 2017.
Kane County Connects routinely posts news releases from the Kane County Sheriff’s Office. This article included the report of a fatal crash combined with news of shooting incidents that took place just prior to the crash.
No. 7: Fatal Crash at Orchard Road and I-88 Might Be Related to Shootings
Back in 2016, public safety officials in the Chicago area reported a disturbing trend: an increase on the numbers of shootings on area expressways. At least 47 were reported in the Chicago area that year, and numbers continued to be high in 2017, according to the Chicago Tribune and other media reports.
When gang violence leaves the local neighborhood and threatens to extend into public transportation thoroughfares, citizens take notice.
That’s one reason KCC readers clicked on the Kane County Sheriff’s Office’s Oct. 16 news release that linked a fatal crash to a pair of shooting incidents in Aurora. On Kane County Connects, the article was viewed 5,872 times.
According to the news release, a high-speed chase ended at the eastbound I-88 exit at Orchard Road, after a Jaguar driven by Serafin Castellanos, 38, of Aurora and a GMC Envoy driven by Christopher Shaw, 23, of North Aurora crashed into a semi-trailer truck.
Shaw was pronounced dead at the scene, and two others — the front-seat passenger of the Envoy, Devonte Bouchee, 24, of Aurora, and the rear-seat passenger, Devin Dobbs, 23, of Aurora — sustained potentially life-threatening injuries. At 5:50 p.m., sheriff’s detectives were notified that Bouchee had died, as well.
Prior to the crash, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and Aurora Police Department were investigating two separate reports of shots fired in the Aurora area that officials said were likely to be related to the fatal crash.
“Both reports involved vehicles chasing each other and shots being exchanged,” Sheriff’s Office Administrative Director Pat Gengler said at the time. “(Investigators) have not ruled out that the shootings and crash are the result of gang violence.”
Status reports on the investigation were not immediately available at the time of this post.
Read The 2017 Top Stories Countdown Series
- Friday — No 10: Bizarre Residential Shooting Report in St. Charles
- Monday — No. 9: Which Townships Have The Highest, Lowest Property Taxes?
- Tuesday — No. 8: Six Things You THINK You Can Recycle … But Can’t
- TODAY — Where Shootings Related To Fatal Crash Near Tollway Ramp?
- Coming Thursday: Where To Find Parades and Fireworks in Kane County, IL
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