Huntley man called a person of interest in Belvidere triple homicide
A 24-year-old Huntley man arrested over a parole violation was identified Wednesday as a person of interest in the weekend shooting deaths of a man and two young sons in Belvidere, east of Rockford.
The man had spent part of Sunday with Andrew Hintt, 31, and the boys, Benjamin, 7, and Sebastian, 5, the Belvidere Police Department said.
The man was interviewed by police and was being held at the Boone County jail.
Separately, U.S. marshals and Belvidere police executed a search warrant for a residence in Huntley, where several pieces of evidence were seized, Belvidere police said. They did not say whether the Huntley man owned or lived in the home.
Illinois Department of Corrections records show the Huntley man was convicted of armed robbery in 2016 for holding up a loan store in McHenry with a BB gun and sentenced to four years in prison, Shaw Media reported. At the time, he was also facing charges for holding up a 7-Eleven in Huntley a week earlier.
He was also sentenced for two years of mandatory supervised release with a recommendation for boot camp. His attorney said he was afraid his client may not qualify or be able to complete boot camp because he had Type 1 diabetes.
He had no criminal history before the robberies.
The bodies of Hintt and the boys were found at Hintt's home Sunday night.
More than 50 people gathered outside the home Tuesday night to pray.
“I can't tell you it's not going to hurt. It's going to hurt for a while,” the Rev. David Smith of First Assembly of God Church told the family. “But look around and remember: In the moment that it hurt the most, these people came out here to be beside you.”
Hintt's aunt, Theresa Eileen, said he operated his own meat truck.
“He spoiled the heck out of his kids,” Eileen told the Rockford Register Star. “He would take them everywhere. He brought the boys their own (electric) dirt bikes. He taught them how to ride.”
Hintt and his fiancee were the parents of five children, though Benjamin and Sebastian lived with other relatives in the area. Eileen said Hintt regularly saw them.