Waukegan police said Thursday evening they have charged two juveniles in the killing of Niolis Collazo, the young Waukegan High School coach and school counselor who was fatally shot last month.
Police issued a statement saying that at around 8 a.m. Thursday, officers executed search warrants at two locations in Waukegan and took two teen boys into custody. Their identities have not been released, but police said they have been charged as adults with murder in the shooting death of Collazo.
They are ages 16 and 17, police said.
“Through an extensive investigative effort from all the divisions of the Waukegan Police Department pulling our resources together two suspects were identified in this case,” Waukegan Deputy Chief Scott Chastain said in a news release.
“The Waukegan Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division conducted a detailed screening of the case with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. The State’s Attorney’s Office approved two arrest warrants for the suspects and two search warrants for each of the suspects homes,” he said.
Both have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. They are due to appear in bond court Friday.
Police said they recovered two handguns at one of the locations they searched, and four at the second, including one that had been reported stolen in Florida.
Collazo, 23, was fatally shot on the evening of May 8 near the corner of 10th and Lewis, as she drove home from a dinner get-together with friends.
Collazo was a volleyball coach at her alma mater, Waukegan High School, and worked as a counselor for a company that works with Waukegan schoolchildren.
