THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE ARTICLE BY LUKE TAYLOR
According to Champaign County court records, Lyons filed a tort against Caleb Mason for money damages from $15,000 to $50,000 in June.
ABOVE: The house on the corner of Riverside Court and Riverside Drive, where a triple homicide occurred Wednesday, remained blocked off by police tape Thursday morning.
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MAHOMET — The Wednesday night shooting that resulted in three people’s deaths in a small Mahomet neighborhood was, in a word, “unimaginable” to the community.
That’s how neighbor Scott Kreitzer described the triple homicide of Janis Mason, 61, Sara Mason, 26, and Caleb Mason, 23.
“It’s just a terrible thing,” he said. “It just brings to mind how anything can happen.”
From his house several doors down, Kreitzer didn’t hear gunfire or notice police lights when officers responded at 9:41 p.m. that night.
He and his wife knew the Masons as fellow longtime residents of the Riverside Court and Riverside Drive cul-de-sacs. Their dogs used to play together.
Bryson Keeble said he knew Caleb from kindergarten through high school. He remembered playing together at recess.
When a friend told him during their morning run Thursday what had happened, Keeble didn’t know what else to do but go to the house, hoping to learn more and reminisce on growing up with his friend.
He found it still surrounded by police tape, with multiple reporters on the scene.
“I was completely confused by what happened. It didn’t make any sense,” Keeble said. “I was also very hurt, obviously.”
As young adults, Keeble and Caleb of course weren’t spending time together as much as they had in school, but they met for coffee about 10 weeks before the shooting.
Keeble said they caught up about “everything,” from Caleb’s “unexpected” interest in squids to his job at Texas Roadhouse.
“He said he was enjoying spending time with his family, and he honestly seemed like he was just happy,” Keeble said.
“He was always a very creative person, and that is something that I learned from so much growing up. He also encouraged me and others on being the best part of themselves. He made an extremely valuable impact on my life and I’m sure on the lives of many other people.”
Keeble wasn’t the only person who felt he needed to see the scene on the corner of Riverside Court and Riverside Drive with his own two eyes.
Residents on the streets said they had never seen so much traffic as vehicles pulled through and turned around in the cul-de-sacs every few minutes.
Mahomet police announced Thursday morning that they had responded to the shooting Wednesday night.
Officers found all three victims with life-threatening wounds. Sara Mason was pronounced dead at the scene. Janis Mason and Caleb Mason were taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana and were pronounced dead shortly after 10 p.m.
Initial reports indicated that the shooter had been “identified and located.”
It was the police department of Berwyn, a Chicago suburb around 120 miles from Mahomet, that revealed the suspect had been killed in a shootout with police.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office later released his identity: 24-year-old John R. Lyons of Westchester, a Chicago suburb just west of Berwyn.
Mahomet Police Chief Mike Metzler said that Lyons knew one of the victims.
“Based on the information we have now, one of the victims was targeted,” Metzler said Thursday afternoon. “This was not a random incident.”
According to Champaign County court records, Lyons filed a tort against Caleb Mason for money damages from $15,000 to $50,000 in June.
Mahomet police responded to a report of the shooting at 9:41 p.m. Wednesday. Berwyn police responded to a report of a man with a gun, later confirmed to be Lyons, at 11:38 p.m.
According to the Berwyn Police Department, officers located Lyons, but he fled on foot and successfully escaped.
He forced entry into a residence where he fatally shot two dogs before officers observed him fleeing into a nearby yard.
Lyons disobeyed officers’ commands to stop and began shooting at them. Officers returned fire and killed him.
Berwyn police turned the incident over to the Illinois State Police, who began coordinating investigations in Berwyn and Mahomet.
The investigation was ongoing Thursday evening, when Metzler provided an update to confirm the Berwyn officer-involved shooting and Mahomet shooting deaths were directly connected.
“The Mahomet Police Department extends our condolences to the Mason family and friends as they grieve the loss of their loved ones,” Metzler said.
Mahomet village administrator Patrick Brown echoed those sentiments.
“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Janis, Sara, and Caleb Mason, who are mourning this senseless and tragic murder,” Brown said. “We are fortunate to have an outstanding police department and law enforcement partners who continue to work tirelessly on this case and whose collaborative efforts helped prevent further tragedy last night.”
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