Waukegan shooting: 2 teens charged in fatal shooting of high school volleyball coach Niolis Collazo

ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Thursday, June 1, 2023
2 teens charged in fatal shooting of Waukegan volleyball coach
Two teens are charged in the shooting death of a Waukegan Public Schools volleyball coach and counselor Niolis Collazo, police said Thursday.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WLS) -- Two teens are charged in the shooting death of a Waukegan Public Schools volleyball coach in May.

Niolis Collazo, 23, was shot and killed while driving in the area of 10th Street and Lewis Avenue. The entire incident was caught on surveillance video.

She was driving home to Waukegan from North Chicago when she called her sister to say she had forgotten her house keys, sister Mia Carani said.

"And then I heard a loud like sudden noise, and then she just starts screaming, like 'ow ow ow!' And I was like, 'what's going on?' And she hung up," Carani said.

On Thursday, Waukegan police said two teen boys, aged 16 and 17, had been arrested for her shooting death. Police said search warrants executed at their homes recovered four handguns, one of which had a fully automatic switch attached to the gun. Police said they recovered a second full-auto switch in the search, but that it was not attached to a gun.

Police said one of the recovered handguns was reported stolen out of Florida.

The two boys have been charged as adults with three counts each of first degree murder. Each had bond set at $5 million attached to their warrant, police said. They are due in bond court Friday.

Collazo was in her first year at Waukegan Public Schools. She worked as an assistant boys volleyball coach at Waukegan High School, where she once played the sport. She was also a counselor with Youth Guidance's Working on Womanhood program, where she worked with young ladies at Smith Middle School, starting in February, the spokesman said.