On April 11th, 2021, Jose Gonzalez Jr was a 19 year old Rockford native.
Jose was a passenger in a sedan driving on the south side of Rockford. At some point, the vehicle Jose is a passenger in is seen by Rockford Police SCOPE (Specialized Community Oriented Police Enforcement) officers Kyle Parr and Owen McGuinness.
At the time, McGuinness had multiple excessive force complaints lodged against him including violent arrests on May 30th 2020. Parr played a role in a arresting multiple individuals over the course of 2020. On May 30th 2020 Parr repeatedly tasered a nonviolent protestor. The protestor was found not guilty of all charges pressed against them.
Parr and McGuinness, in an unmarked vehicle with no police uniform on, began to pursue the vehicle under the alleged belief that the sedan had been involved in some type of crime earlier.
They did not know the driver or any of the passengers, if this was the car in question, or any details about the alleged crime that may or may not have been committed.
Parr and McGuinness first initiated the pursuit with no lights or sirens. They began to aggressively tail the sedan before the sedan sped away. The two officers briefly lost the vehicle, so they alerted all officers of their activity.
Parr and McGuinness found the car again after it stopped in front of a home on Illinois ave.
When the car stopped, Jose Gonzalez Jr got out of the car and began running to a family member’s home nearby.
At the time there was no belief that Jose Gonzalez Jr was guilty or suspected in any crime. He was merely a passenger in this pursuit, running away from an unmarked car and out of uniform cops that were aggressively pursuing them without any lights or sirens.
When Jose got out, so did McGuinness. McGuinness chased Jose through backyards and over fences.
While they are running through yards, McGuinness alleged Jose turned and pointed a gun at him causing McGuinness to shoot Jose in the back of the leg.
The only evidence RPD had was the testimony of Owen McGuinness and a picture taken by RPD of a gun laying in grass somewhere.
This was the twenty-fourth case investigated and justified by the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force.
It was the second police shooting in two days, fourth deadly force incident in the 2020’s and 13th deadly force incident since Tom McNamara took mayoral office.