A Lindenhurst man was killed and another person was injured in a shootout during a home invasion in St. Charles Saturday evening, police said.
St. Charles police were dispatched around 7:37 p.m. to the 100 block of Walnut Drive for a report of shots fired inside an apartment, officials said in a news release Monday. Officers arrived to an “active and chaotic” scene and found several people inside the apartment, according to the release.
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Panagiotis Koutroumbis, 26, of Lindenhurst, was allegedly dragging James Gherardini, 26, of Lindenhurst, out of the apartment when officers arrived, according to the release.
Gherardini had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and was taken to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
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Officers detained all occupants of the apartment, along with Koutroumbis, for questioning, police said.
Investigators believe that at least three people entered the apartment through an unlocked sliding glass door, according to the release. They allegedly zip-tied the hands of several occupants in the apartment and demanded items from them, police said.
Police said a St. Charles man received a call from a resident of the apartment just before the shooting and showed up at the scene, exchanging shots with at least one of the people inside the apartment, according to the release. The man was shot in the stomach and also taken to Delnor Hospital, where he remains hospitalized in stable condition, officials said.
Koutroumbis has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, home invasion and aggravated unlawful restraint. He appeared in bond court, where his bail was set at $1.5 million, according to the release.
He is due back in court on Jan. 20.
Police believe additional suspects may have fled from the scene before police arrived.
“Investigators have been working around the clock and our investigation continues,” officials said.
Police believe that this was an isolated and targeted attack and that there is no threat to the general public at this time, according to the release.
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