Pedro Zabala, 16, was found with a gunshot wound to the head on the morning of July 26, 2020, on a quiet stretch near Ottawa and Monroe streets in Joliet, Illinois. Officers arrived about 10:16 a.m.; fire personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The Will County coroner’s preliminary cause of death after an autopsy was a gunshot wound to the head.

News reports identified Zabala as a Romeoville teen. Within two days investigators arrested 18-year-old Jimmy A. Baker Jr. of Joliet; prosecutors said in court that Zabala had fired a gun first and that Baker returned fire before fleeing and hiding his weapon. Baker was charged at the initial hearing with four counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and authorities continued to investigate.

If anyone saw activity near Ottawa and Monroe streets around the morning of July 26, 2020, or has information about this shooting, please come forward.