Teen Charged With Firing Gun Into Air Before Crashing Into 2 Cars

EVANSTON, IL — An Edgewater teen accused of firing a gun into the air during an argument last week in Evanston before getting into two hit-and-run crashes while fleeing the from the scene was ordered released with electronic monitoring.

Mario Moss, 18, of the 5300 block of North Winthrop Avenue, Chicago, was arrested on May 15 after Evanston police were dispatched to a call of gunfire and a hit-and-run crash around 7:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Dodge Avenue, followed by a second reported crash a couple block away in the 1800 block of Washington Street.

Police said Moss had been with two acquaintances at the time of the shooting. The teen was armed with a Bryco 380 handgun and involved in an escalating verbal altercation on a street with an unidentified man or boy at the time, according to Cmdr. Ryan Glew.

Moss pulled out the gun and fired a shot into the air "in an attempt to intimidate" the person he was arguing with. He then got into a gray Infiniti to flee the scene, according to police. Almost immediately, he struck an unoccupied parked car in the 700 block of Dodge as he headed north before turning right onto Washington Street, where he hit the second parked car.

Officers apprehended him a short distance away from the scene of the second crash, Glew said. Moss admitted to having the gun and firing it, and investigators were able to locate the gun. No one was injured in the incident.

Moss was charged with felony counts of reckless discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and misdemeanor counts of possession of a handgun without a FOID card, possession of ammunition without a FOID card and two misdemeanor counts of failure to give information after crashing into an unattended vehicle, in addition to several traffic citations. He is due back in court in Skokie on June 13, according to Cook County Sheriff's Office records.