Bloomington-Normal Crime Report: 3/16-4/5

Image Courtesy of the City of Bloomington

NORMAL, Ill. – The U.S. Marshals Task Force and the Normal police arrested Normal resident Colin Simpson for attempted murder on March 27.

The crime took place in March 2023 in the 700 block of W. Orlando Ave, where two people were struck with gunfire. After a lengthy investigation, Normal police finally brought the case to a conclusion a few weeks ago.

According to Chief Steve Petrilli of the Normal Police, the year-long time frame is not standard for a case like this.

“Generally we try to do those investigations in a much more timely manner,” Petrilli said. “Sometimes you run into circumstances where there’s just not a lot of evidence. Maybe we’re struggling to find witnesses to interview, maybe there’s a lack of evidence; there could be a lot of different reasons.”

Petrilli was unable to comment on what finally allowed the police to bring the investigation to an end. As for the involvement of the U.S. Marshals, it’s fairly standard for violent crimes in the area.

“We’re a full-time member of the United States Marshals Task Force, so we have an officer that operated in a Task Force officer capacity for them,” Petrilli said. “Anytime that we have any type of violent crime, any warrants related to violent crime, we rely on that partnership with the federal U.S. Marshals Task Force.”

In the past two weeks, the Normal police also responded to 36 traffic accidents, 20 domestic incidents, 5 cases of retail theft, one runaway minor and several other incidents.

As for Bloomington police, they have responded to 5 incidents of driving without proper license or while under the influence as well as several other incidents, most of which resulted in no arrests.