Thanks for the updates. The news on this seems to have dried up. Wonder why?
I was posting pretty regularly, until I had to really get some work done. Police have released a name to go along with the description, but I don't have that name right now. He's local - speculation among me and my friends is that this might be a gang initiation. That's purely speculation, but the apartment they were looking at earlier is from the right area of town for that sort of thing.
http://www.sj-r.com/Sections/News/Stories/35746.asp
BREAKING NEWS - Arrest warrant issued in Statehouse killing (Updated 11 p.m.)
By STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER STAFF
See Tuesday's State Journal-Register for full coverage
A massive manhunt continued late Monday for Derek Potts, 24, of Springfield and Olney, who is accused of shooting to death a security guard at the Illinois Capitol Monday afternoon.
William P. Wozniak, 51, of Petersburg, was at the security check-in post just inside the Statehouse's north entrance about 1:38 p.m. Monday when he was shot once in the chest at close range. An ambulance took Wozniak, who was unarmed, to St. John's Hospital. He died during surgery at 2:52 p.m.
Police late Monday issued an arrest warrant for Potts. A press release said he had been linked to both the Statehouse shooting and to a shooting about an hour earlier Monday at the Birds-N-Brooks military surplus store, 2641 S.
Sixth St. One man was wounded in the earlier incident.
The warrant charges Potts with first-degree murder, burglary, aggravated discharge of a firearm and no firearm owners identification card.
Anyone with information on Potts' whereabouts was asked to call [217] 558-0672.
Police chased down possible sightings of Potts' car - a silver foreign model with a spoiler - for much of Monday afternoon until they zeroed in on his residence at the Hickox Apartments, 631 S. Fourth St., where the car had been seen.
About 9 p.m., officers executed a search warrant on Potts' second-floor apartment. He was not inside, but officers reportedly did find a shotgun and duffel bag.
There apparently were no witnesses to the actual shooting, said Col. Larry Schmidt, chief deputy director of the Illinois Secretary of State Police, which handles security at the Capitol complex.
But authorities believe the attack happened quickly and without warning.
"It just appears at this point he parked his car on the (north) driveway, walked in, apparently just enough to open the door, shot, turned around, put his gun in the trunk, got in the car and drove off," Schmidt said during a news conference.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Secretary of State Jesse White planned to meet late Monday to discuss ways to beef up security at the Capitol, the home office for five of the seven constitutional officers, state senators and the two legislative chambers.
Those ideas included putting up metal detectors at the entrances, restricting ways to get in and arming security guards.
It's not clear, however, whether extra security measures could have prevented the type of in-and-out attack that happened Monday.
"He wouldn't even have had time to go through a metal detector," Schmidt said.
Wozniak, who had been a guard at the Statehouse since 1986, is survived by his wife and two children, Marc, 16, and Megan, 13.
Several cars were gathered at the Wozniaks' house throughout the evening.