Teen dies in drive-by shooting near Willowbrook

Residents of Hinsdale Lake Terrace apartmentsare in shock. "It is just unreal," said a young friend of 18-year-old Joshua Holmes. Neighbors described the teen-ager as "cool" and "always smiling." | SANDY ILLIAN BOSCH—SUN-TIMES MEDIA

Updated: November 26, 2012 2:20AM

UNINCORPORATED WILLOWBROOK — Hinsdale Lake Terrace resident Wendy Williams heard the shots that killed her 18-year-old neighbor Monday.

“We heard gunshots and then we heard kids screaming and crying,” said Williams.

Others, she said, saw the white car drive up and open fire on Joshua Holmes, a 2012 graduate of Hinsdale South High School.

“There were many children who saw exactly what happened,” she said.

DuPage County Sheriff’s Police responded to a report of shots fired in the area of Honeysuckle Rose Lane and Lilac Lane, in the Hinsdale Lake Terrace apartment complex, at 6:35 p.m. Holmes, of Honeysuckle Lane, had been shot. He was taken to Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, where he died.

Holmes was only 18 but had a criminal record. He pleaded guilty last October to burglary charges out of Warrenville and was sentenced to probation and the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program. He also had pending charges from 2012 of marijuana possession in Westmont and retail theft from Downers Grove, and had court dates in October on both of those charges.

Witnesses told police they saw a white four-door vehicle approach the intersection. A person inside the car displayed a handgun and fired several shots.

Police said they believe Holmes was the intended target.

“There is no information to indicate that the community is in danger,” police said in a written statement.

Williams said the incident occurred at a time of day when the neighborhood, south of 91st and west of Route 83, is busy with activity. Her own children, she said, were walking home from the afterschool program, not far from the shooting.

“We had a lot of children out there,” she said.

Williams said she did not know Holmes, whom she said moved to the neighborhood in the last few years.

“I knew of him,” she said. “We try to get to know everybody”

She said her neighbors are upset by the incident — the first of its kind that she can remember in the eight years since she moved to Hinsdale Lake Terrace.

Dawn Domrose of the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office also said this is the first drive-by shooting she can recall in the area.

Social workers were available to students at Burr Ridge Middle School, Anne M. Jeans Elementary School and Hinsdale South High School on Tuesday. Crisis intervention and grief counseling also was made available at Willowbrook Corner Neighborhood Resource Center for anyone in the neighborhood in need of help, said Kim Stephens, director of programs for HCS Family Services.

“We will be here tonight until 9 and again tomorrow if there is a need,” said Stephens.

“We will be here as long as they need us.”

Stephens said the afterschool program at Willowbrook Corner would proceed as usual Tuesday.

Hinsdale South High School principal Brian Waterman said staff reached out to students known to be affected by the incident but no extra security was put into place at the high school. He said about 250 South students live in the Hinsdale Lake Terrace neighborhood.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office at (630) 407-2400.

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