Police: Round Lake Beach shooting suspect free on bail at time

SHARE Police: Round Lake Beach shooting suspect free on bail at time
erik_g_mota_263x300.jpg

Erik G. Mota | Round Lake Beach police

A man who faced felony charges after being shot at while trying to break into a north suburban home last year is back behind bars, but this time, according to authorities, he did the shooting.

Erik G. Mota, 28, was charged Tuesday with shooting a man who was visiting Mota’s home in Round Lake Beach, according to Round Lake Beach police.

At the time of his arrest, he was out on bond after an incident in Long Grove last October in which Mota was shot at by a homeowner while attempting to burglarize a home, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office.

In the latest case, officers were called about 6 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a person shot in the 1300 block of Red Oak Circle in Round Lake Beach, police said.

The victim, a 21-year-old man, was visiting Mota when he was shot, a statement from police said. Officers arrived to find the victim in a car outside the home.

He had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, police said. He was hospitalized, and the injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

During a search of Mota’s home, between 100-500 grams of cannabis were found, police said.

He was charged with aggravated battery with discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, possession of cannabis, and possession of a firearm with defaced ID, all felonies, police said.

He was already out on bail after being charged with attempted residential burglary, and burglary to a vehicle, according to Lake County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Christopher Covelli.

Officers were called about 4 a.m. Oct. 20, 2016, to a home in the 3000 block of Country Lane Road in Long Grove for reports of a burglary in progress, the sheriff’s office said at the time.

The homeowner was asleep on a couch when he woke up to find Mota trying to break in through a screen door, and then through the window of the house, according to police.

The homeowner got a pistol and fired four shots at Mota, one of which grazed his pants leg and another hit his vehicle, Covelli said at the time. Mota drove off, leaving behind a number of items he was apparently planning to steal from two vehicles he’d broken into in the driveway, authorities said.

A short time later, Vernon Hills police officers were called about a suspicious vehicle in the 800 block of Westmoreland Drive, and found Mota changing a flat tire.

Mota, who lived on that block at the time, was identified as a suspect in the Long Grove burglary attempt and taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.

After being charged on Oct. 21, he was released after paying 10 percent of a $5,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office. After his arrest this week, he was ordered held on a $250,000 bond.

The homeowner in the Long Grove incident was not charged.

The Latest
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
The way inflation is measured masks certain costs that add to the prices that consumers pay every day. Not surprisingly, higher costs mean lower consumer confidence, no matter what Americans are told about an improving economy.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.