Neighbors speak up after 9 people were shot over holiday weekend

PEORIA (25News Now) - Several neighbors spoke with 25News following the homicide of 30-year-old Rick Ranson Monday night.

We counted a total of nine people who were shot when reading Peoria Police Department incident reports Tuesday morning.

Police were also called to the hospital at about 1:15 Sunday morning where they found four men with gunshot wounds. Three of those wounds were not life-threatening, and one of the men was critically wounded but is stable.

Before arriving at the hospital the officers were addressing a gathering of about 100 cars in the parking lot of Peoria High School. Those rides took off when the police arrived.

But two more juveniles turned up at the hospital after being shot in Grandview Park.

Monday night, the shooting on West Gale Ave. killed Rick Ranson and sent a woman to the hospital.

“We were outside, and we heard six shots,” said witness Reginald Hunn. “She (my wife) thought that it was firecrackers. I’m prior military. I knew it was a .22 round.”

We walked the neighborhood and knocked on doors, asking neighbors what they saw. Some homeowners did show us their security camera footage, but the cameras did not record the suspect or anything related to the homicide.

One woman said she’s lived here for 46 years but hasn’t seen a situation like this here before. Ranson’s family declined not to speak on camera.

“I would have never moved into this neighborhood If I had known it was going to be like this,” said Hunn. “This is the second shooting this week. That’s crazy. Two shootings within a week? It’s bad.”

This is the city’s eighth homicide of the year.

The case remains under investigation by the police department.

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