COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A suspect in a 2011 shooting that wounded two little girls was captured this week after Florida police busted him for marijuana, prosecutors said.
Dionisio Gonzalez, 35, now faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm — in addition to the pending Florida case.
The shooting happened on June 8, 2011, as two young girls, ages 2 and 7, played in an Avondale playground in the 3500 block of West School Street, Assistant State's Attorney Kim Przekota said during a bond hearing Thursday.
Gonzalez drove a maroon van onto the street, where passenger Antonio Bucio fired a .45 caliber semiautomatic gun several times — striking the 2-year-old in her head and the 7-year-old in her back, prosecutors said.
Both girls survived, and Bucio told police he was aiming for several rival gang members at the time, Przekota said.
"I don't care who they were" shooting at, Cook County Judge Maria Kuriako Ciesil said in court Thursday. "What I do care is that two innocent kids took the bullets."
"Your actions allowed the shooter to commit the crime," she told Gonzalez before ordering him held without bail.
Police arrested Bucio shortly after the shooting and issued a warrant for Gonzalez on June 14, 2011, authorities said.
Gonzalez is believed to have fled to Florida, where he has successfully evaded arrest until local police busted him for a misdemeanor marijuana charge. Gonzalez was flown to Chicago, where he was arrested Tuesday evening, court documents show.
After the 2011 shooting, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy promised, "We're going to obliterate that gang," according to media reports. "Every one of their locations has to get blown up until they cease to exist."
Prosecutors said there a total of six people in the maroon van the day of the shooting: Gonzalez, Bucio and four passengers. The group exchanged gang signs with the intended victims before Bucio opened fire, Przekota said.
After the shooting, Gonzalez drove off and parked the van in the 2800 block of North Francisco Avenue and ran away, prosecutors said. Bucio stashed the gun in the van, and police later recovered the weapon.
Several witnesses on the scene identified Bucio and Gonzalez, Przekota said.
Gonzalez has previously been convicted in 2010 of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was sentenced to one year probation.
His attorney on Thursday said Gonzalez lives in Florida, where he's held the same job for the past year.
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