Three suspects were charged with possession of a controlled substance and unlawful use of a weapon after one of them apparently fired shots out of the window of their car while traveling on the Eisenhower Expressway.
Officer Michael Harrison responded to the area of southbound Harlem near the expressway exit on April 2 after a call reporting shots fired from a moving white Lincoln Town Car with three occupants. A driver in a Jeep Cherokee pointed Harrison in the direction of the car, and along with a Riverside squad car, Harrison and Auxiliary Officer Jim Faulkman curbed the car.
The three people inside were identified as Jose Estrada, 35, Pablo Nunez-Estrada, 34 and Eulalia Perez-Hernandez, 28.
Faulkman recovered a bag containing cocaine later weighed at 37 grams and a .22 caliber semi-automatic handgun from the back of the car.
The original caller was contacted, and he told police that he was driving eastbound on the expressway when he saw someone fire shots from the passenger side of the car, and he then followed the car in his Jeep Cherokee until police arrived.
Nunez-Estrada told police that the three had just left a bar in Stone Park called Noa Noa. Asked if anyone had fired a gun out the car’s window, he said “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
None of the three acknowledged that the gun or the cocaine belonged to them.
Bar fight at Circle Inn
Officer Harold Grimes arrived at Circle Inn Tavern around 11:25 p.m. on March 30 to find a man in the bathroom bleeding from his head following a bar fight.
A witness explained to police that two female bar patrons had been drinking and “getting rowdy,” and one of the women tackled Brian Keith Mitchell of Oak Lawn off his bar stool and onto the floor.
The woman was then told to leave, and began arguing with the bartender. Mitchell tried to stop the argument by pulling her away, but when another man saw Mitchell on top of the woman, she thought the two were fighting and came to help the woman.
When punches were thrown at him, Mitchell said, he began punching back. He struck the man under his right eye, and the man hit his head on the floor or wall, suffering lacerations to his forehead and under his eye. He was taken to Oak Park Hospital, and needed eight stitches on his head and three on his eye.
Mitchell was charged with battery, and the bar was given local ordinance citations for failing to keep order and remove over-served customers after it was discovered that bartender Anthony Leutek was supposed to be bartending but could not because he was too intoxicated from drinking while working.
Police nab Starbucks CD thief
An employee of Starbucks, 7231 Madison St., reported to police that on April 6, she saw a man who fit the description of someone who had recently shoplifted from a Chicago Starbucks location place a large bag on a chair at the coffee shop.
She said when she made eye contact with the man, he ran from the store and headed eastbound on Madison Street on a bicycle.
Officer Jarlath Heveran took possession of the bag the man had left behind and soon caught up with Kenneth Gill, 45. Gill first said he was just leaving his house, then said he was on his way to Starbucks to retrieve a bag he’d left behind.
Informed that Heveran had the bag and that five CDs were inside, Gill said the bag was not his. When told that it contained documents bearing his name, he admitted the bag was his but said he didn’t know how the CDs got there. The complainant identified the CDs as Starbucks merchandise, and valued them at $76.75. Gill was charged with retail theft.
Man refuses beggar, gets robbed
A man told police that he was in line at the Shell Station, 7201 Madison St., on April 5 when a man asked him for change. When he refused, the man grabbed $50 from him and ran into the parking lot, where an accomplice was waiting.
The man ran after the thief and grabbed him by the jacket, but let go after being punched twice in the head. The offender was last seen driving northbound on Harlem in a 1994 Chrysler Concord.
Police were familiar with the name of the car’s registered owner from previous contacts, and the victim identified the owner, whose name was blacked out in the police report, from a photo lineup. The car was entered into the LEADS database as a felonious vehicle.
These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between March 30 and April 6 and represent only 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 Seth Stern
