NIU Shooters Indicted For Attempted Murder
DEKALB, Ill. (STMW) -- Two Northern Illinois University students have been indicted on attempted first-degree murder and other charges in connection with last month's off-campus shooting that injured an NIU football player.
In addition to attempted murder, a DeKalb County grand jury indicted Mark Orozco, 24, and Richard Van Arsdale III, 20, on charges of aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge, armed violence and unlawful delivery of cannabis charges, Assistant State's Atty. Phil Montgomery said Monday.
The men were arrested following an April 5 gunfire incident that injured NIU football player Devon Butler. Orozco and Van Arsdale remain in the county jail, where they are being held in lieu of $1 million bond.
According to police, the men fired four shots into an off-campus apartment building from a Dodge Durango driven by Van Arsdale.
They were targeting a man who had reportedly ripped them off during a drug transaction, but one of the bullets struck Butler, who was visiting a friend at the apartments and had no connection to the drug deal, police said.
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Montgomery said.
Butler, 19, was taken to a Rockford hospital and initially listed in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the right side of his body. He has since been discharged and was well enough to attend the school's spring football game on April 23 as a spectator, according to the university.
However, the junior from Pembroke Pines, Fla., will not be able to play this fall and is planning to take a medical redshirt season, a NIU spokesman said Monday.
Orozco, who is accused of firing the gun, could face a 31-year minimum prison sentence if he were to be found guilty of the most serious charges against him, Montgomery said. Van Arsdale could face a 21-year minimum sentence.
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