Man dies in road-rage shooting on interstate, Illinois cops say. ‘Where is my son?’
A ”jovial” 30-year-old man was killed in a road-rage shooting as he was driving home from work, according to Illinois police and news reports.
Family members of Lenier Clayton learned he had been shot and killed when Will County Sheriff’s officials showed up at their doorstep late Nov. 25, WBBM reported.
“(Clayton’s mom) asking them: ‘Where is my son? Where’s my baby? Is he OK? Is he alive? Is he safe?’” his sister, Mia Clayton, told the news outlet. “They wouldn’t say much more until they said: ‘Can we come inside? We don’t want to do this on the porch.’”
He had been involved in a road-rage incident with another driver, and the two vehicles crashed on Interstate 80 near the Interstate 355 exit in New Lenox, according to a Nov. 27 Illinois State Police news release.
Authorities said Lenier Clayton, of Joliet, was then shot by the other driver. Clayton was taken to a hospital, where state police said he was pronounced dead.
The shooting happened as Clayton was driving home from work, just days before Thanksgiving, his favorite holiday, according to WBBM.
Mia Clayton described her brother in a GoFundMe as “the happiest, most jovial, kind, loving and well-liked person you’d ever want to meet.”
“Our hearts are broken. This just doesn’t make any sense,” she said on Facebook. “My baby brother didn’t deserve to go like this.”
Others remembered Lenier Clayton for his “contagious” smile and his “respectful” nature.
State police announced on Nov. 27 that the other driver, 45-year-old Phillip E. Rogers, had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Lenora Clayton, the victim’s mother, told WMAQ she would forgive the accused shooter, but she questioned why the incident had to end in violence.
“Why would someone shoot my son like that — not once, but multiple times?” the mother told the station. “I don’t understand that one human being can do another like that.”
Mia Clayton now hopes for justice, telling the Chicago Sun-Times that her brother’s vehicle had been run off the road and totaled in the crash.
“If justice — for whatever reason — is not to be served, it would (be) twice, three times the blow,” Mia Clayton told the Sun-Times. “(The gunman) had no right to do what he did.”
Joliet and New Lenox are southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Man dies in road-rage shooting on interstate, Illinois cops say. ‘Where is my son?’."