Rock Falls teen charged as adult in Sterling Pizza Ranch shooting; motive pegged as ongoing feud: prosecutor

MORRISON – With a Whiteside County prosecutor saying he hunted his victim down, a 17-year-old Rock Falls teen charged with attempted murder, burglary and aggravated battery in connection with a Nov. 6 shooting at Sterling’s Pizza Ranch now will face those charges in adult court and the possibility of life in prison.

Harrison Webb, who will turn 18 in January, is charged with one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm and two counts of burglary, accused of walking into the restaurant’s kitchen about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 6, pulling a gun from the front pocket of his shorts, walking up behind a 17-year-old worker who was preparing pizza pans and shooting him in the neck.

If he is convicted, Webb, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, could spend anywhere from six years to life in prison.

During a court appearance in Whiteside County Circuit Court on Thursday afternoon, prosecutors laid out their case against the teen, saying Webb and the wounded employee, also a Rock Falls 17-year-old, had been feuding for at least a year, with another man earlier this year requesting a protective order to keep Webb away from him. That case was dismissed when the man did not show up for a court date, Whiteside County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Buckwalter told the court.

The feud boiled over on social media the morning of Nov. 6, while both teens were part of a Snapchat message group, Buckwalter said.

Later that night, she said, Webb walked from his Rock Falls home, crossed over a bridge into Sterling and continued walking to Pizza Ranch at 3900 E. Lincolnway.

People were eating in the restaurant as he walked in and headed to the kitchen, where four employees were working, she said, adding that a surveillance camera shows a shooter walked up behind the victim, said “That’s what you get” and shot him from 18 inches away. The bullet entered the back of his neck and exited through the front. The victim, who was in court Thursday afternoon, was taken to CGH Medical Center in Sterling, treated and released.

The shooter, wearing red shorts, black shoes and a white T-shirt wrapped around his face to conceal it, left the restaurant and was believed to have fled into a nearby cornfield, Buckwalter said. Officers used a drone to search the area, with its operator reporting he believed the shooter, who was not captured, was in the area of Lincolnway and Lynn Boulevard.

Buckwalter said that, in the meantime, Webb’s mother learned about a shooting at Pizza Ranch and was concerned about her son, that he had been bullied, had left the house and a Life 360 app showed he was at Pizza Ranch. When officers arrived at the Webbs’ home later that night, Webb was there.

Officers were given permission to search the house, Buckwalter said. They found clothes matching the shooter’s description in the house as well as a silver handgun wrapped up in a blanket on his bed, with a rifle in a corner of the room, she said.

Webb was arrested at 12:15 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, when a warrant issued in Whiteside County court that morning was served at his home. He was transported to the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center in St. Charles, a detention center.

After Buckwalter laid out the case Thursday, Judge James Heuerman said there was probable cause to charge Webb, even though much of the evidence is circumstantial.

“Circumstantial evidence is still evidence,” he said.

Buckwalter’s petition for Webb to continue to be detained was met with resistance from Webb’s attorney, Allison Fagerman, who said no one in the restaurant identified Webb as the shooter and one worker told police the shooter had blonde hair and blue eyes. Webb’s hair is brown.

“Nobody at Pizza Ranch identified my client as being at that facility,” Fagerman said.

Fagerman also said the handgun found in the house is silver and black and the one captured on surveillance video is silver.

“My client was found at his house, not in the field,” she said.

She said Webb has no criminal history and that if he was allowed pretrial release, Newman Central Catholic High School, where he is a junior, had agreed to let him attend class. His employer, the Rock Falls’ McDonald’s, also had agreed to let him come back to work.

Buckwalter said sending him home would be unacceptable because he had no supervision, as indicated by the presence of two guns in his room.

Heuerman ruled in favor of Buckwalter, saying the charges were of a highly violent nature and Webb was a threat to the victim and the community as a whole.

He ordered Webb to remain in custody. A preliminary hearing is set for 1 p.m. Dec. 2.

If convicted, Webb faces 6 to 30 years for attempted murder and would have to serve 85% of the sentence under state law. That could be enhanced to add 25 years or up to life in prison, Heuerman said.

The aggravated battery with a firearm charge, which also is a Class X felony, carries the same potential sentence of 6 to 30 years with 85% to be served. The burglary charges carry sentences of 3 to 7 years in prison.