Is there more to the story?

The photo at right shows Xzavier Gibbs, in cammo on left, being all gangsta...but Gibbs now stands charged with attempted murder in a late 2014 shooting.

SALINE CO.— Shootings in Carrier Mills and Harrisburg lit up social media at the end of 2014, and has created a somewhat puzzling situation as regards the prime suspect in the case.

It appears that while authorities believe they’ve got their man, they don’t have him in custody; and instead, the main suspect, 17-year-old Xzavier Gibbs, as well as his family members, are all completely oblivious to the fact that a charge of Attempted First Degree Murder has been filed and a warrant issued for the Harrisburg teen, who is apparently flitting back and forth between Harrisburg and Evansville, unapprehended and possibly unaware that he’s in so much trouble.

When Disclosure submitted a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act request) for mugshots and included Xzavier Gibbs in the request, the photo at right was sent. It is unknown when this photo of Gibbs was taken, but it wasn’t in connection with the current charge of Attempted Murder, since as of press time, he’d not been arrested.

The same social networking sites that were ablaze with concern over the shooting on the night of December 28, 2014, which injured one Bobby Evans of Harrisburg, are being utilized by Gibbs and his family members as a means of communication, and if they ARE aware of the charges, they seem unfazed by them, and are just continuing on their online conversations as if nothing has happened.

In the meantime, Harrisburg police officials have run the gamut between being completely silent about the matter or, when they do issue comment about it, just proclaim that they’re “looking for him,” leading many to believe that they either can’t find him…or don’t want to.

And that has lead to much speculation that Gibbs may have been tagged as the fall guy in the shootings, meaning that the real gunman is still out there, and other Saline County residents might be the next to be caught in the crossfire of gangbanger wannabes, similar to the months during 2011-2012 when gunfire in the city’s north side was a common occurrence…and innocent bystanders the victims.

Boys playing basketball

The situation emerged at about 6 p.m. on that Sunday evening, when a group of boys playing basketball at the city park on Washington Street in Carrier Mills reported they were shot at.

No one was hit by this gunfire.

They described the perpetrators as black males wearing dark hoodies.

The males left the scene on foot, according to the boys; however, others in the area described a tan/harvest gold-colored four-door sedan as prowling the area both before and after the shooting incident.

Investigating authorities believed they’d spotted one man that fit the description of those involved in the shooting, this man spotted walking north on Route 45, but when he was stopped for questioning, he told the officer “I didn’t do anything!” and ran off. He was pursued but the officer, Carrier Mills police sergeant Mike Stover, lost sight of him.

There was no report that any officer had been able to pursue any vehicle fitting the description of the one the kids said was “prowling.”

This photo from 17-year-old Xzavier Gibbs’ Facebook page is not tagged (identifying anyone in the pic); however, it appears Gibbs is the one third from left. The thug-wannabes are shown pretending to “shoot”...giving rise to the suspected proclivities of those Gibbs hangs out with.

The North Jackson incident

Then, at about 8:30 p.m., reports began coming in to police that there had been a shooting in the yard at 505 North Jackson in Harrisburg.

There was one man injured at that location: Bobby R. Evans, 32.

Evans is the man who, in February 2003, shot one Remus Henning in the buttocks at Lakeside Bar in Harrisburg during a fiasco there.

Evans was charged with a single count of Attempted First Degree Murder, with a charge added later of Aggravated Discharge with a Firearm into an Occupied Vehicle.

However, because Henning survived the shooting with buttocks intact, on June 9, 2003, Evans entered a plea of guilty to the Aggravated Discharge count and agreed to a sentence of six years in Illinois Department of Corrections (of which he spent roughly half that).

He was also ordered to pay exactly $38,806.93 in fines and fees on that date of plea, most of it restitution to Henning…and to this day, he has paid nothing.

On the night of Dec. 28, 2014, Evans was shot in the chest. An ambulance was called and he was ultimately transported to a hospital out of the area, his injuries listed as non-life-threatening.

Evans was at the home of Makanda Moss when he was shot. Residents in the area were watching out the window the entire time during the shooting and response and recounting what they were seeing to Disclosure, including how police were reacting to some of the residents filming the incident (they were being told they “couldn’t film police,” which is a patent lie; there are no laws in effect in Illinois regarding VIDEO recording of public officials in the course of their duties).

Through drama that can only originate from the perception of being jilted, Evans’ girlfriend, Taryn Bishop, was bewailing the fact that Evans was at Moss’ residence when he was shot, effectively to anyone who would listen to her that night, many of whom reported this to Disclosure.

Meanwhile, Evans reported to police that he knew the shooter, and gave them a name.

That name was not Xzavier Gibbs.

Disclosure has the name of the man Evans identified. He is almost 27 years of age and lives in Harrisburg. He has no criminal record in Saline County and has not been identified by authorities as a suspect.

Other incidents unconfirmed

Police activity in the city of Harrisburg went on into the early morning hours of the 29th, with teams being set up to knock-and-talk with various people who were not classified as suspects or persons of interest, as well as to check out other reports of “possible shooting activity,” none of which panned out.

Whether Gibbs’ Harrisburg residence on West Baker Street was one of these on that particular evening remains unknown.

In an odd coincidental report, shortly before the shooting on North Jackson (literally, about drive time between the two cities), some kids reported to their parent that there had been a “shooting incident” at a basketball court adjacent to a church in Eldorado between 8 and 8:30 that Sunday night.

There was absolutely no official report of any such thing happening, and many opined that it might have been nothing but kids in Carrier Mills getting word out to friends in Eldorado, who subsequently reported that it was “a shooting” to their parents.

However, the timeline and insistence of those involved in Eldorado made the entire thing worrisome.

More worrisome was the fact that authorities were never able to directly connect the Carrier Mills incident with the Harrisburg incident, and as of press time, have not reversed their position on that. Authorities are stating that as far as they know, the two incidents are not related.

So if there was a third incident in Eldorado, it would mean that there were three incidents in a little over two hours across the county…a very strange situation.

Friends of Evans have told Disclosure that he frequently plays basketball in Carrier Mills; whether he was there during the 6 p.m. incident or not remains, as a lot of other things, unknown.

Motive: All of the above

A motive for the whole thing has been proposed by friends of all of those involved, and they advised this amounts to a situation of retribution in the shooting, although whether it has to do with pride, a female, money or drugs—or, as a couple of sources have put it, all of the above—hasn’t become clear yet.

While a “second shooter” has been suggested by law enforcement, whether it is Gibbs or the person Evans fingered hasn’t been made clear….so how Gibbs got drawn into the Harrisburg shooting mess remains unknown.

However, a warrant for his arrest was issued on Dec. 31.

Official sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the teen accused in the Dec. 28 shooting in Harrisburg is still on the run.

“He appears to be moving back and forth between Saline County and Evansville, Ind.,” the source said.

Gibbs stands accused of one count of Attempted First Degree Murder and one count of Aggravated Battery.

Cash bond on the warrant for the arrest of Xzavier Gibbs has been set at $50,000.

However, why, when authorities know exactly who Gibbs’ family is and it’s been made public that the warrant has been issued, no one has made an effort to collect up Gibbs and bring him in over the shooting remains—as most details in this very strange case—unknown.

A photo from Bobby Evans’ Facebook page, ostensibly of Evans.