A 19-year-old Chicago Heights woman was fatally shot Friday night. (CBS)
UPDATED 03/14/11 12:41 p.m.
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (CBS) — A 20-year-old Chicago Heights man has been charged in connection with the shooting death of his girlfriend.
Ryan Fantasia was charged with two counts of felony obstruction of justice, according to the Chicago Heights Police Department on Sunday. Chicago Heights police Detective Mikal El-Amin said the shooting had been ruled an accident.
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“He didn’t do it on purpose,” El-Amin said of Fantasia.
He is “‘pretty destroyed’’ with grief over the death of his girlfriend. El-Amin could not immediately say why authorities approved an obstruction charge.
Fantasia appeared in bond court Sunday morning in Markham. Bond information was not immediately available.
An autopsy performed Saturday determined the teen, identified by police as 19-year-old Haley Pelock, died of a gunshot wound to the chest and her death was ruled a homicide, according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Chicago Heights police got a 911 call about 7:30 p.m. that there was a shooting victim in a home in the 0-99 block of West 26th Street in the south suburb, according to a release.
When officers got to the scene they met 20-year-old Fantasia, who told them that his girlfriend, Pelock, had been shot and was lying on the floor in a second floor bedroom.
Officers went to the second floor bedroom, where they saw a second man, 30-year-old John Fantasia, attempting to give CPR to Pelock, the release said.
The Chicago Heights Fire Department arrived at the scene and also attempted to revive the young woman, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Haley was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:50 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
Chicago Heights police Capt. Jeffrey Bohlen said Pelock, of the 3100 block of Courtney Lane in South Chicago Heights, had some time off from school, possibly a junior college, and had gone to visit a young man prior to the shooting.
Bohlen said he and his daughter knew the victim personally, and he used to play softball with the victim’s father.
“She was a peach, an absolute peach. She was an absolutely beautiful girl,” Bohlen said.
“It’s a tragedy,” the captain said.
The Chicago Heights Police Department, the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and the Illinois State Police are currently investigating this case.
Contributing: Sun-Times Media Wire
