UPDATE: Suspect Arrested In Connection With Vehicle Damage Incidents On I-74
State Police have arrested Kevin L. Casey of Janesville, Wisconsin, in connection with a string of incidents involving damage to vehicles on Interstate 74 in east central Illinois. Daniel Baker/Illinois Public Media
UPDATE on Sunday, June 3, 2018:
Illinois State Police have arrested a Kevin L. Casey, 53, of Janesville, Wisconsin, in connection with a string of incidents involving damage to vehicles on Interstate 74.
Preliminary charges include aggravated battery to a child, aggravated battery on a public way, and criminal damage to property.
Reports of damage to vehicles include windows shattered while traveling along I-74 in Champaign and Vermilion counties. State police say they believe similar incident have occurred in numerous states to the east of Illinois, along I-74 and other interstates.
Police have released no further information on where Casey was arrested or how they developed him as a suspect. They will hold a press conference on this incident at 10 a.m. on Monday in Pesotum.
Friday, June 1, 2018:
Illinois State Police are investigating a new round of reports of windows shattered and other damage to vehicles while traveling along Interstate 74 between Champaign and Ogden in Champaign County.
These new reports come less than a month after an earlier wave of vehicles suffering damage on I-74. In one case, a shattered driver’s side window on a minivan injured a 3-year-old passenger from Monticello.
District Commander Louis Kink is with the State Police District Headquarters in Pesotum. He said both the number and cause of the incidents is unclear, but they usually involve shattered windows—which he said can hurt someone.
“This criminal activity is dangerous and it can actually cause people to die," said Kink. He said the State Police take these incidents very seriously, because they could cause a major traffic crash, and injure or kill a driver or passenger.
Kink said he does not know why shattered car windows are becoming more common for drivers traveling on I-74. However, he said it is probably not the work of someone using a firearm, because bullet rounds would be found in such cases.
“We don’t know if it’s like a pellet gun, a BB gun, a slingshot, shoot rocks, we don’t know," said Kink.
He said anyone whose vehicle is damaged should call 911 immediately, adding that the more information the police get from the public--the better chance they have to catch who is behind these incidents.