Sean M. Peters, 22, of the 300 block of Burkhardt Court was arrested on April 22 at approximately 1:57 p.m. and charged with reckless discharge of a firearm and animal cruelty.

Officers received a call from concerned neighbors who said they could hear repeated gunshots coming from his backyard. Upon arrival, officers found Peters wearing a baseball cap and no shirt.

Peters told responding officers that he was shooting a BB gun in his backyard. When asked for the gun he responded that a friend took it and left.

The officer described Peters as being nervous, sweating, stuttering and avoiding eye contact. The officer also reported seeing a small squirrel in a cage in the yard.

Upon seeing the animal was wounded and bleeding, the officers entered the yard via a front gate. While approaching, the officers allegedly heard someone walking on the rear steps of the enclosed porch and said the person was crouching behind the steps.

Officers say they told the person to exit into the yard and, as the second man walked out, they reported seeing a small stainless steel rifle lying on the concrete floor, through a propped open rear door.

The rifle was allegedly a .22 caliber Marlin Model 70 PSS semi-automatic.

Officers also reported finding spent .22 caliber casings on the ground outside the open door.

Peters allegedly told officers that he was just shooting at a squirrel that was eating his house and that it looked safe to do.

Officers at the scene reported that to the west of the direction in which Peters was allegedly shooting was a 3-foot-high cyclone fence and a parking lot for an apartment complex, and beyond that a sidewalk and street occupied by moving cars and pedestrians.

In the immediate area, the officers reported, there is also an elementary school with a visible playground.

The wounded animal was turned over to a Forest Park Code Enforcement officer. Police allege there was evidence that Peters was shooting at other items as well, as if for target practice.

Robbery

• An Aurora woman was attacked on the 300 block of Desplaines Avenue, April 24, at approximately 10:45 p.m. The woman said she had a few drinks and was walking southbound on Desplaines Avenue near Washington Street, when a man, estimated age 30-35, wearing a black leather coat and dark pants, approached her and started talking to her.

The man walked with her halfway down the block, then turned, faced her, pulled an object from his coat and struck her on the back of the head.

The man then knocked her to the ground, taking her black coach purse with silver buckles and ran northbound.

The woman told police she began screaming for help and knocking on doors, making her way to Duffy’s Tavern, where she finally received help.

She used Duffy’s telephone to call 911.

The thief took her state ID, driver’s license, checkbook, credit cards, her children’s identification cards and $4.

Anyone with any information on the case, please contact the Forest Park Police Department.

Car theft

• A Forest Park man reported a green, 1978 Malibu Coupe stolen from the 1200 block of Harlem Avenue, at the Harley Davidson parking lot last week. The vehicle, he told police, was rusty and beat up, and had a for sale sign on it.

Theft from car

• A Chicago woman reported unknown offenders used a pry tool to remove the rear driver’s side window of her black, 2003 Jeep Cherokee SUV while it was parked on the 100 block of Lathrop Avenue between April 22 at 10 p.m. and April 23 at 6 a.m.

Vagrant removal

• Police officers were called to 711 S. Desplaines Ave. on April 24 at approximately 10:17 p.m. when a man refused to leave a CTA train.

Nero Jackson, Jr., 46, of the 9600 block of South Carpenter in Chicago was allegedly intoxicated and on the CTA train with his shoes off, picking at his bare feet.

CTA employees allegedly asked Jackson to put his shoes back on, and he refused, turning belligerent and cursing at the officials.

When the police arrived, Jackson allegedly told them his name was Joe Jack and refused to give them his date of birth.

When the officers patted Jackson down, they found he was wearing a pair of blue jeans under a black pair of snow overalls. The officers asked Jackson to leave the train, and he allegedly turned belligerent again and cursed at the officers. The responding officers said Jackson was slurring his speech, that his eyes were bloodshot and smelled of alcohol.

After being arrested, Jackson allegedly told officers they had to serve him by getting him a bologna sandwich, a lawyer, and reading him his rights.

These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between April 18 and April 25 and represents a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in this report has only been charged with a crime. The cases have not yet been adjudicated.

“compiled by Melissa Lou