A Cook County judge on Saturday ordered detainment for a South Side man whom authorities claimed fled to Mexico after shooting two Chicago police officers in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in 2017.
Edgar Barron, now 25, was arrested Thursday at his residence in the same neighborhood where authorities said he opened fire on two officers with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle. Barron faces two counts of attempted murder in the May 2017 shooting.
On the evening of May 2, 2017, two plainclothes officers were driving in the 4300 block of South Ashland Avenue when someone began firing on them from a nearby vehicle with what investigators believed to be a military-style semi-automatic rifle.
Both officers were hospitalized for their injuries, one wounded in the arm and the hip and the second officer in the back, authorities said.
Another man, Angel Gomez, who was 18 years old at the time of the shooting, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in May 2017 just days after the incident, with investigators believing him to be the driver of the Chrysler from which the shots were fired.
The shooting came amid intensifying gang strife that saw increased use of military-style rifles in Back of the Yards and neighboring Brighton Park.
At Saturday’s hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Assistant State’s Attorney Ivan Velazquez said that co-defendant Gomez, who was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in 2021, had identified Barron as the gunman to officers during his arrest in 2017.
Two witnesses who had seen the involved Chrysler at a gas station before the shooting also identified Barron as the person who stepped out of the car to pay inside at the register, Velazquez said. Fingerprints found on the rifle recovered after the shooting matched Barron’s, while his cell phone records placed him at the scene, he added.
Still, police were unable to track down the suspected gunman for more than seven years. Barron, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, had no prior criminal background, Velazquez said.
Barron’s attorney, Ruth Ramirez, said her client was the father of a 9-month-old child and his wife is currently pregnant. He had lived in Chicago for the past few years after returning from Mexico, where he works to support his family and his ailing mother, according to Ramirez.
In arguing against jail detention, Ramirez said Barron was not a flight risk due to his family ties to Chicago, advocating for electronic monitoring instead. She also contested the prosecution’s claim that Barron went to Mexico to evade arrest, claiming that he instead traveled there to stay with his mother.
But Judge Deidre M. Dyer ordered Barron detained pending trial, deeming him a flight risk because he left for Mexico after an initial warrant was issued for his arrest in 2017. She also noted that Barron had given arresting officers the false name Arthur MacMillan when they arrived at his residence this week, which Dyer said factored into her decision. Ramirez declined to comment after the hearing.
Barron is scheduled to return to court next Wednesday at Felony Branch Court on the Far South Side.