Police charge Army Special Operations sergeant in Illinois bowling alley killings

Peter Weber

Police in Rockford, Illinois, said Sunday that they arrested Duke Webb, a 37-year-old Army Special Operations sergeant based in Florida, for Saturday's fatal shootings at the Don Carter Lanes bowling alley and bar-restaurant. Webb was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three more counts of attempted first degree murder, and his first court appearance is Monday.

Webb stands accused of fatally shooting three men, ages 65, 69, and 73, and wounding a 14-year-old boy shot in the face, a 16-year-old girl, and a 62-year-old man currently in critical condition. "We believe this was a completely random act," Rockford Police Chief Dan O'Shea said Sunday. "There is no prior meeting or any kind of relationship between the suspect and any of the victims in this case." When officers arrived on the scene, Webb tried to hide two weapons and his identity, O'Shea said.

This is the deadliest year on record in Rockford, a city of 150,000 about 90 miles west of Chicago, and there were a 35 homicides, the most in one years since 1965, the Rockford Register Star reports. Several midsize cities across the U.S. have also reported record numbers of homicides this year, and the group Gun Violence Archives tallied more than 41,500 gun violence deaths in the U.S., a national record.

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