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Man who played role in Jan. 6 riot now charged with murder after crash kills Skokie woman

By Jon Seidel
Published  November 16, 2022 1:58pm CST
Capitol Riot
Sun-Times Media Wire

CHICAGO - A downstate man who assaulted a police officer and cameraman during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has been charged with first-degree murder for last week’s wrong-way crash on Interstate 55, which killed a Skokie woman.

Shane Woods, 44, of Auburn, is also charged with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated fleeing and eluding a peace officer. His separate federal case is among the most serious and violent brought so far against an Illinois resident in connection with the Capitol riot.

Federal prosecutors did not seek his detention in that case, court records show. But Woods is now being held in the Sangamon County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail. Woods’ indictment Wednesday by a state-court grand jury was announced by Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright.

Shane Jason Woods

Lauren Wegner, 35, died in the Nov. 8 crash that has led to the new charges against Woods. The Illinois State Police say two others, a 61-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from Granite City, were injured in the four-vehicle crash. Woods was also taken to a hospital with injuries. A 37-year-old Texas man told police he was not hurt.

The State Police said Woods used the exit ramp at mile marker 88 to travel in his GMC Sierra northbound into the southbound lanes of I-55. His Sierra then crashed into Wegner’s Mercury Sable and a Toyota Corolla driven by the Granite City man, the police said.

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A Freightliner semitruck, driven by the Texas man, immediately then drove through the scene and was damaged by the debris.

Wegner was pronounced dead at the scene.

Woods pleaded guilty in September to committing assault on U.S. Capitol grounds and assaulting and resisting a federal officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot there. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta earlier this week canceled Woods’ Jan. 13 sentencing in that case.

Woods admitted that he lowered his shoulder and rammed into an officer who had already been sprayed with a chemical irritant during the riot, knocking her off her feet and sending her crashing into a bicycle barricade. He also admitted knocking a cameraman to the ground with a "blindside shoulder-tackle."