Feds file more charges related to weekend looting in Chicago

Federal prosecutors have filed additional criminal charges related to the weekend looting and violence in Chicago.

Brandon Pegues, Amber L. Peltzer and Kevin D. Tunstall are each charged in separate cases in federal court with illegally possessing a firearm. The filings follow charges Monday in Minnesota against a Galesburg man who allegedly traveled to Minneapolis and then Chicago to loot and riot.

Court records indicate Pegues, Peltzer and Tunstall are all from the south suburbs.

The complaint against Pegues alleges that at 12:38 a.m. Sunday during Chicago’s emergency curfew, mass crowds drew Chicago police to 801 S. Financial Place. Officers saw four men running south on Financial, and some were carrying hammers.

Officers allegedly saw Pegues look at them, adjust the right side of his waistband and then also flee south on Financial. Officers ran after him, and Pegues stumbled and fell while reaching into his waistband, according to the complaint. The police said they saw a gun fall to the ground, and they allegedly saw Pegues push the gun under a vehicle, where officers found it. The gun was a loaded Glock 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, according to the complaint.

Pegues has a January 2010 conviction for residential burglary in Cook County, for which he was sentenced to 30 months of probation, according to the feds.

The complaint against Peltzer also alleges that at 12:35 a.m. Sunday, during the emergency curfew, police, reacting to looting near 16th Street and Michigan Avenue, saw Peltzer peer out of the entryway of a bar there. They allegedly saw Peltzer look in their direction and then try to hide.

Police said they noticed glass on the front door of the bar had been shattered and they got out of their car to look for Peltzer.

They allegedly spotted Peltzer in the driver’s seat of a car on 16th, and they approached her. They said they saw Peltzer reach toward the front passenger seat. One officer allegedly then saw a handgun on the seat. Police identified it as a loaded, two-toned Smith & Wesson 9 mm firearm.

In October 2014, the feds say Peltzer was convicted of aggravated robbery in Will County and sentenced to five years in prison.

The complaint against Tunstall alleges that at 1:26 a.m. Saturday, Chicago police heard gunshots from a parking lot at the southeast corner of State and Harrison. They saw a group of people standing there, surrounding a black Jeep.

When officers approached, several people ran away. But officers also allegedly saw Tunstall get in the Jeep’s back seat. An officer glanced inside using a flashlight and allegedly saw Tunstall leaning forward, with his hands near his waist.

When an officer opened the door of the Jeep to take Tunstall out of it, a gun allegedly fell to the ground. The feds say it was a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol. On police body-camera recordings, Tunstall can allegedly be heard saying, “You dropped that gun, I picked it up,” and “I grabbed that gun.”

The feds say Tunstall was convicted of harassing a witness or family member in Cook County in October 2016 and sentenced to four years in prison.

PeguesComplaint.pdf

PeltzerComplaint.pdf

TunstallComplaint.pdf