Afternoon raid leads to arrest in May 2023 Jefferson Street shooting

QUINCY – Adams County Sheriff’s officers and Quincy Police have made an arrest in connection with a May shooting that killed a Quincy woman.

A raid at a South side Quincy apartment Monday afternoon led to the arrest of Victor A. Weems III in the shooting death of Dana Lawton.

Quincy Police Chief Adam Yates said the investigation had been ongoing since Lawton was shot in May 2023. There had been reports of Weems, 19, being in Chicago and also in the St. Charles, Mo. area. Yates said the St. Charles Police Department had been especially helpful in the pursuit of Weems.

He said the department received a tip that Weems was back in the Hannibal-Quincy area and together with the Adams County Sheriff’s Department and the West Central Illinois Task Force, the search intensified.

Around 1:30 Monday afternoon, representatives from those law enforcement agencies raided an apartment in the Village Apartments, 3100 State. While a female fled from the scene, Weems was located in the back bedroom of an apartment. He was not armed and was arrested without incident.

Lawton, 47, was shot the night of May 24. She was taken to Blessing Hospital and then airlifted to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, where she died on May 27.

Yates regarded the shooting as “random” as Lawton was sitting on the porch of her home in the 1100 block of Jefferson when she was struck by a bullet fired during an altercation down the street.

Weems faces first degree murder charges. Yates said his department knew the woman who fled the scene and while he didn’t elaborate on any pending arrest, the investigation would continueto look into anyone who may have assisted in keeping Weems away from law enforcement since the fatal shooting.

Adams County First Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Eyler said Weems would be in court Tuesday afternoon and he will ask for Weems to continue to be held in the Adams County Jail.