In coordination with the multijurisdictional Street Crimes Task Force, officers from the Champaign Police Department initiated a traffic stop at 4:34 p.m. near the intersection of University and Goodwin in Urbana before the vehicle fled the scene. Two minutes later, at 4:36 p.m., the suspect vehicle was involved in a collision with another motorist near the intersection of Vine and Washington. Following the collision, the occupants of the suspect vehicle immediately ran from the scene. Several subjects were observed to be armed as they fled. The second driver from the traffic collision sustained minor injuries and was transported to an area hospital for treatment.
Officers from the Champaign and Urbana Police Departments and the Street Crimes Task Force arrived on-scene and pursued on foot, temporarily detaining two female passengers and arresting two male subjects. Officers recovered two firearms from the male subjects’ flight paths. Officers searched the area attempting to locate a fifth individual who fled the traffic accident, but he remains at large. Arrested pending formal charges are 27-year-old Kenichi Townsend from Urbana and 41-year-old Juvon Mays from Champaign. Both face charges including Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon, and Resisting or Obstructing a Peace Officer, and Mays faces an additional charge of Aggravated Fleeing and Eluding.
Since this incident took place near Urbana Middle School and Urbana High School, officers from the Urbana Police Department contacted officials with Urbana School District 116 and the area was placed on soft lockdown, per established protocols. That lockdown has been lifted.
The Street Crimes Task Force is comprised of officers from the Champaign, Urbana, University of Illinois Police Departments, and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office. They investigate violent crimes including weapon and drug offenses in Champaign County areas. Champaign Police serves as lead agency of the Task Force.
Anyone who has additional information related to the whereabouts of the fifth occupant of the vehicle is asked to please contact police at 217-351-4545. Arrangements can be made for information to be shared privately. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may also submit tips to Crime Stoppers by phone at: 217-373-8477 (TIPS); online at 373tips.com; or the “P3 Tips” mobile app.
Citizens are reminded that information submitted to Crime Stoppers is completely anonymous. Calls are routed to a third-party national call center that receives your information, completes a tips information form, and then passes the information to the appropriate law enforcement agency. Caller ID tracking is not utilized by Crime Stoppers and conversations are not recorded.
Crime Stoppers will pay cash rewards of $5,000 for tips that lead to an arrest in any homicide case, $2,500 for tips leading to an arrest in a felony crime involving a firearm, and up to $1,000 for tips leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible for any other crime. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.