70-year-old man charged with shooting neighbor in Chicago suburb
LOCKPORT, Ill. (CBS) — A 70-year-old man has been charged with shooting his neighbor in unincorporated Lockport Township on Tuesday night, and the victim's aunt said the attack was motivated by race.
Will County Sheriff's police said, around 5:30 p.m., 70-year-old John Shadbar fired dozens of rounds from an assault rifle at 45-year-old Melissa Robertson, a mother of two, near 144th Place and Rickerman Road.
Her family said she's in critical but stable condition, and on a ventilator and sedated at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox as she fights to recover from her injuries.
"She's going to have to be transferred for major reconstruction surgery," said Jeanne Beyer, the victim's aunt. "The bullet hit her thumb. She lost inches of bone, most of the tissue."
Witnesses told 911 that the suspect was walking around outside after the shooting. This was followed by a reverse 911 call to other neighbors, who were told to shelter in place.
The suspected shooter barricaded himself inside his home but was taken into custody a short time later.
Police said he made several incriminating statements to a crisis negotiator before he came out of his home, and was taken into custody.
Shadbar has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and unlawful use of a weapon.
Police said the shooting was recorded on surveillance cameras.
Robertson's aunt said Shadbar had harassed Robertson for years, because her sons are both Black, calling them "f***ing n*****s."
"And, you know, 'What are you doing here? Get out of here.' He'd call my niece an N-lover. Just anything. Apparently, yesterday it escalated. He was yelling 'Dead N-word' as he was trying to get into her backyard to shoot, and her son, her 8-year-old, was on the trampoline, with another little one," Beyer said.
This has been a problem throughout the period of nearly a decade that Robertson has lived in her home, Beyer said.
"It started almost immediately, and in the last couple years, its escalated. She's called the cops several times. She's not called the cops several times, because that seems to aggravate him," said Beyer. "I'm sure they have limits to what they can do, but they could never arrest him. They could never do anything."
In a Facebook post dated March 9, Robertson wrote about being "seriously harassed" by Shadbar.
"Yelling racial slurs, and throwing explosives over the fence! Shooting his gun over the fence, although it's blanks it's still horrifying. Pointing gun at me and my friend, spying over the fence cans of crush that he lights something and throws it over and it blows huge holes everywhere! The revving motorcycle engine and blaring music at all weird hours, I can ignore these things, have for YEARS!" Robertson wrote. "I feel our safety is in jeopardy!"
She ended the post with the words, "I just want him to leave me and my kids alone."
In addition to the charges filed against him, Shadbar also had his Firearm Owners Identification card revoked because of prior felony charges.
CBS 2 put in a request for previous calls to the address to police, but had not heard back late Wednesday.
Robertson's youngest son witnessed the shooting. Both of her children are now in therapy.
A GoFundMe has been set up to raise funds to help with Robertson's recovery.
