William Tapes, Suspect in FBI-Involved Shooting Incident Surrenders

A man wanted in connection with the March 25, 2013 incident that resulted in an FBI agent firing shots at a car surrendered to FBI special agents yesterday afternoon and has been charged in connection with the incident, announced Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

WILLIAM TAPES, age 52, whose last known address was 165 North Central Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, was the subject of a manhunt led by the Chicago FBI since the incident occurred on Monday. Tapes was charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of assault on a federal officer, a felony offense.

According to the complaint, FBI special agents observed an individual later identified as Tapes kneeling near a vehicle’s tires and suspected that Tapes was stealing the center of the chrome wheels on that vehicle. Tapes was then seen getting into the driver’s seat of a sedan in which two other individuals were passengers. As agents approached the sedan to talk to the occupants, they identified themselves as “police” and “FBI.” The agents commanded Tapes to turn off the engine of the sedan and to get out of the car, but Tapes put the car in reverse and abruptly backed up. The agents continued to direct Tapes and the passengers in the sedan to get out of the car, but none complied with the commands. After several seconds, the sedan, which was being driven by Tapes, lurched forward, stopped briefly, and then maneuvered around an FBI vehicle which had been parked approximately 10 to 20 feet in front of the sedan. As Tapes maneuvered around the FBI vehicle, he allegedly headed directly toward one of the agents. That agent jumped out of the way to avoid being run over and fired his handgun into the sedan.

The complaint alleges that the sedan then left the parking lot at a high speed and was next seen by the agents after it had been involved in an accident. According to the complaint, the agents saw one of the passengers of the sedan at the scene of the accident, but neither Tapes nor the other passenger remained at the scene. A witness reported that the driver of the sedan crawled out of the driver’s side window and left the scene of the accident on foot.

According to investigators, friends and family of Tapes reached out to the FBI’s Chicago office on Wednesday in an effort to arrange for his surrender, which occurred Thursday afternoon at the Chicago Field Office. Tapes appeared this morning in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole, who ordered him held without bond pending his next scheduled court appearance, which is set for Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

Investigation of the incident and the search for Tapes was aided by the Chicago Police Department.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Tapes faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt, and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.