On 11-03-19 at approximately 1:22 a.m., the City of Carbondale Police Department received numerous calls of shots fired in the 500 block of S. Illinois Avenue. Officers already in the area on foot, located a gunshot victim with life-threatening injuries. The investigation revealed the victim, Keon Cooper 27 years-old of Carbondale, was talking to three black male suspects outside of his vehicle in the parking lot, when he was shot by two of the suspects armed with handguns. All three suspects fled in a black newer model Kia Optima or similar style vehicle.
Officers performed life saving measures on Cooper and the Jackson County Ambulance Service drove him to the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale where he was pronounced deceased. The suspects are described as follows:
Suspect #1: Black male, average build, unknown height, gray or white and black zip up hooded jacket, white t-shirt underneath, long black braided or dread-lock hair, baggie clothes, early 20’s, armed with a handgun.
Suspect #2: Black male, average build, unknown height, white hooded sweatshirt, faded blue jeans with a dark stripe down the outside, long black dread-lock style hair, early 20’s.
Suspect #3: Black male, thin build, dark colored hooded jacket with a white symbol or name on the left chest area, armed with a handgun.
The suspects are considered armed and dangerous. The investigation is currently active and ongoing. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, S.I.U. Department of Public Safety, the Jackson County Ambulance Service, the Jackson County Coroner’s Office and the Illinois State Police assisted in the investigation.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the City of Carbondale Police Department at (618) 457-3200. You may also call the Carbondale/SIU Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (618) 549-COPS (2677) or the Murphysboro/Jackson County anonymous tip line at (618) 687-COPS (2677). Anonymous tips may also be made by selecting the “Crime Stoppers” tab located on the main page of this website. Please help yourself, along with your county, its communities and the university campus by using these numbers if you witness, or have any information pertaining to, a crime. Cash rewards for information which leads to an arrest are also made anonymously. Remember, crime doesn’t pay, but Crime Stoppers does!