Intended Shooting Target Of Accused Rowell Avenue Gunman Becomes Uncooperative With Police: Prosecutor

JOLIET, IL — Phillip Hinojosa, the 20-year-old former Plainfield resident who now resides on Joliet's east side, will be spending his New Year's in the Will County Jail as the latest Joliet shooting defendant remains incarcerated indefinitely under the SAFE-T-Act. Wil County Judge Ken Zelazo agreed with the prosecution's arguments, suggesting that Hinojosa should remain detained following his Joliet police arrest over the weekend, moments after an east side shooting.

According to the prosecution's filing, Joliet police tactical officers were performing surveillance near Second Avenue and Rowell Avenue, due to recent police calls of gunshots and an aggravated discharge of a gun. All the officers were driving unmarked vehicles but wearing regular police uniforms.

While some of the unit drove south on Rowell, officers saw Hinojosa wearing all black clothing attire walking in an alley just north of 205 Rowell Ave., prosecutors said. According to court documents, the officers in one unmarked police car drove past Hinojosa and seconds later, they heard one gunshot fired. Hinojosa then started running north, toward Second Avenue and Arizona Avenue, as he held his waistband, court records allege.

The officers turned around, flipped on their squad car flights and pursued after Hinojosa. He looked at the officers as he tossed his handgun into a yard in the 100 block of Arizona, prosecutors told Judge Zelazo. The gun was a black Polymer 80 9 mm handgun, also known as a ghost gun, and it had two rounds jammed in the chamber and another 18 live 9 mm rounds in the extended magazine.

Prosecutors said Hinojosa scaled a backyard fence in the 800 block of Second Avenue as one of the chasing officers discharged their Taser. Hinojosa kept running south as the same officer discharged his Taser a second time, this time causing Hinojosa to fall to the ground, according to officials.

He was giving up, the 20-year-old told Joliet police, court records said. At the time of his arrest, Hinojosa told the officers he was OK. The officer discharged a total of seven electrical probes from his Taser, and three were recovered from Hinojosa's clothes. The other four were found in the yard and retrieved.

In addition to recovering the handgun, Joliet police recovered one 9 mm shell casing in front of a house in the 200 block of Rowell Avenue, the same area where the tactical officers spotted Hinojosa, court documents note.

According to prosecutors, a Joliet 21-year-old was identified as the possible victim. He indicated his vehicle was struck by the gunfire, but he "eventually became uncooperative and left the scene."

As for Hinojosa, even though he is just 20 years old, he has an extensive criminal history dating back to his juvenile years, prosecutors revealed to Judge Zelazo. In October 2022, Hinojosa received two years of probation for unlawful possession of a gun. He served four different jail stints for indirect criminal contempt incidents during 2020 and 2021. In 2019, he received one year of probation for unlawful possession of a firearm — when he was just 14 years old.

Hinojosa resides in the 100 block of Adella Avenue, the Joliet police arrest report showed.