4 years for shooting at another driver on a Chinatown expressway ramp (while on probation for a gun case)

Romeo Torres (Cook County sheriff’s office)

CHICAGO — A man accused of shooting at another driver during a road rage incident last year, just two months after being placed on “first-time weapon offender probation,” has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Romeo Torres, 19, was facing attempted murder charges in the case but ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated discharge of a firearm toward an occupied vehicle, court records show. Judge Alfredo Maldonado handed down the sentence.

The altercation leading up to the gunfire began as three drivers jockeyed for position on the ramp from Cermak Road to the outbound Dan Ryan Expressway around 10 p.m. on February 26, 2023.

At one point, Torres allegedly pulled over on the ramp, got out, and fired a shot toward the victim, striking their driver’s door but causing no injuries. Two nearby security cameras and the victim’s dashcam recorded the shooting.

Illinois State Police troopers discovered a shell casing on the entrance ramp and focused their investigation on Torres after learning that the gunman’s car was registered to his girlfriend, officials said.

She later told investigators that she was riding in the car when Torres got involved in a road rage incident on the ramp in Chinatown, prosecutors said, but she claimed that she blacked out and couldn’t remember any details about what happened.

Torres, a trucking school student, and his girlfriend were expecting twin daughters when the incident occurred. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, he is expected to be paroled on July 22, 2026.

Just two months before the shooting, prosecutors and a judge agreed to give Torrest “first-time weapon offender probation” in a case where he was accused of possessing a gun in a vehicle. If he completed probation successfully, the case would conclude without a conviction, and he could have it expunged.

That won’t be happening now. Judge Margaret Ogarek found him in violation of the probation, which she terminated unsatisfactorily.