Carbondale Alerts
Carbondale Police Press Release-Aggravated Battery with a Firearm/Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon/Aggravated Domestic Battery
NEWS RELEASE
City of Carbondale, Illinois
May 17, 2026
For Immediate Release
CARBONDALE – On May 17, 2026, at 10:35 a.m., City of Carbondale Police Officers responded to a business in the 800 Block of South Illinois Ave. in reference to a report of a possible shooting. Officers were able to locate and arrest the suspect, Ricardo Rodriguez-Rivas, 40, of Carbondale in the area.
Upon receiving the call for a possible shooting, officers arrived and located a victim with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the foot and began searching the area for the suspect, who witnesses said fled on foot. The officers also learned that a second victim had arrived at a local hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound from the incident.
Investigators discovered that Rodriguez-Rivas and one of the victims were known acquaintances in a domestic relationship and had been involved in an altercation near the business where the shooting occurred. The victim had entered the business, and Rodriguez-Rivas followed the victim inside. Inside the store, Rodrigues-Rivas fired a handgun, engaging the victim in a physical altercation. A firearm was recovered during the investigation.
The uninvolved victim was treated and released from a local hospital. The other victim is in stable condition at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A Civic Alert was released advising the public to avoid the area.
Rodriguez-Rivas will be incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail pending a detention hearing.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the police department at the numbers listed below. Additional charges may be pending.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the City of Carbondale Police Department at (618) 549-2121. 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 on this website’s main page. Please help yourself and your county, its communities, and the university campus by using these numbers if you witness or have any information about a crime. Cash rewards for information that leads to an arrest are also made anonymously. Remember, crime doesn’t pay, but Crime Stoppers does! For more information about Crime Stoppers, please follow the QR Code.
The mission of the Carbondale Police Department is to work in partnership with our community to preserve life, protect human rights, protect property and improve quality of life by providing police service to all in a fair, sensitive, and professional manner.