A 45-year-old Chicago man has been charged with first-degree murder in a deadly road rage shooting on Interstate 80 near New Lenox earlier this week, police said.
Phillip Rogers is also charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in the shooting death of 30-year-old Lenier Clayton of Joliet, according to a news release from Illinois State Police.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, state police responded to a 911 call reporting an expressway shooting near the Interstate 80 westbound entrance to Interstate 355. State police said Rogers and Clayton were involved in a road rage accident. After the cars crashed, Clayton was shot, police said.
Clayton was transported to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said. Rogers was later located and taken into custody.
Clayton’s family started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral costs that has raised $18,396 of the $25,000 goal.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and cannot find any reasonable explanation for why a person would want to dim such a bright light, especially for a traffic incident,” Lenier Clayton’s sister, Mia Clayton wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Mia Clayton described her brother as the “happiest, most jovial, kind, loving and well-liked person you’d ever want to meet.”
“He worked hard and made a concerted effort to be the very best friend and family supporter he could be,” she wrote.
At the detention hearing Wednesday, court records show a Will County judge ordered Rogers to remain in custody while he awaits trial. Rogers is due back in court Dec. 12 for a preliminary hearing.
