Mark Dicara | Lake County Sherrif’s Office
A 62-year-old man in Illinois is facing two felony charges after he accidentally shot himself in the leg with a .357 Magnum Revolver while having a dream about an “intruder” breaking into his home in April. Mark M. Dicara was taken into custody this week and charged with one count of illegally possessing a firearm without a valid Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The illegal possession charge is a Class 3 felony while the reckless discharge is a Class 4 felony.
According to a press release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 9:50 p.m. on April 10, 2023, responded to a 911 call in regards to a person with a gunshot wound at a home located in the 100 block of Shoreline Road in Lake Barrinton, which is about 40 miles northwest of Chicago.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located the victim — later identified as Dicara — inside of the home. Dicara appeared to be suffering from a single gunshot wound to the leg. Deputies immediately applied a tourniquet to Dicara’s leg, saying he was “losing a significant amount of blood.”
Investigators say they soon learned that Dicara’s injury was the result of a bizarre sequence of events.
It was revealed that after falling asleep earlier that evening, Dicara “had a dream that someone was breaking into his home.” He then went and “retrieved his .357 Magnum Revolver and shot at who he believed to be the intruder.”
However, there was no one actually inside or trying to break into Dicara’s home. Instead, “he shot himself and apparently woke up from the dream,” police wrote in the release.
The round Dicara is said to have discharged in his sleep went through his leg and lodged itself into his bedding. Police noted that it was fortunate the bullet did not travel through a wall Dicara shared with one of his neighbors.
Emergency medical personnel transported Dicara to a local hospital and investigators on the scene were able to confirm that there was “not a burglary attempt at Dicara’s residence.”
As the investigation into the shooting incident continued, deputies say they discovered that the gun Dicara used to shoot himself was owned and possessed by him illegally, as his FOID card had been revoked. FOID cards are mandatory in order to legally own a gun under Illinois law.
Police did not provide a reason as to why his FOID card had been revoked. Typical reasons for the revocation of a FOID card include violent criminal convictions, failed drug tests, and being deemed mentally incapable of safe firearm ownership.
Dicara in 2006 pleaded to one count of physical battery and was sentenced to one year of supervised release, court records show. He was also charged with domestic battery in the same case, but that charge was later dropped. It’s not clear if that contributed to the loss of his status as a FOID cardholder.
A warrant for Dicara’s arrest was issued on June 9. Deputies took him into custody on June 12. He was released after posting a bond of $150,000 and is due to appear in court on June 29.
Dicara has not yet entered a plea in the case.
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