Wrong-way driver in fatal I-380 wreck is also a murder suspect in Illinois

CEDAR RAPIDS - The driver who was going the wrong way Sunday on Interstate 380 North, causing a fatal crash, is also the defendant in a 2017 murder case in Winnebago County, Illinois.

According to the Winnebago County Circuit Court Clerk's office, Tyler S. Lee, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and 11 other offenses stemming from a fatal shooting that occurred in Loves Park, a small city about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

The Rockford Register Star reported that Loves Park officers responded about 4 a.m. on May 20, 2017, to a shooting, where they found 38-year-old Christopher Peters had been fatally shot.

Police said Lee and Peters were involved in an altercation when the shooting occurred.

Lee was arrested later that same day when police raided his residence and confiscated quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as marijuana plants.

Court records show Lee was charged in connection with the drugs, but the homicide-related charges came later.

The circuit court clerk's office said a bill of indictment charging Lee with murder was filed on Nov. 1, 2017, and his bond was set at $1 million.

He was later released when $100,000 - or 10 percent - of his bond was posted, the clerk's office said.

It is not yet known if Lee will face charges in Linn County for his involvement in the wreck Sunday that killed one and injured two others.

Police said Lee was driving the wrong way on Interstate 380 North near the Seventh Street NE exit, when his Ford F-150 collided with a Chevrolet Suburban, killing the front-seat passenger, 23-year-old David Phuong Nguyen, of Cedar Rapids, and seriously injuring the driver, Rylee Brooke Wallingford, 20, also of Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids police did not comment on the case in Illinois, but said accident reconstruction specialists are investigating the fatal wreck. Once concluded, the findings will be submitted to the Linn County Attorney's Office for review.

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