Pedro Zabala, 16, a Hispanic male, was found late on the morning of July 26, 2020, on a quiet stretch near Ottawa and Monroe streets in Joliet, Illinois. Officers responding around 10:16 a.m. discovered him with a gunshot wound to the head; fire personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The Will County coroner conducted an autopsy the following day, listing a gunshot wound to the head as the preliminary cause of death.
News accounts identified Zabala as a Romeoville teen, and police asked the public for help in the immediate aftermath as detectives gathered surveillance footage and took witness statements.
Within two days, investigators arrested 18-year-old Jimmy A. Baker Jr. of Joliet. Prosecutors alleged in court that Zabala had fired a gun first, prompting Baker to return fire before fleeing and hiding his weapon. Baker was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon—four counts according to charging details reported from the initial hearing—while authorities continued to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. Contemporary reports did not list murder charges against Baker in connection with Zabala's death, and no additional suspects were publicly named.
