Reports of shots fired leads to heroin charges
Police were called at 12:12 a.m., May 18, to the Forest Park CTA Blue Line station, 711 Desplaines Ave., to remove a man after a call from CTA employees. When police arrived, they were told the man had walked out of the station and fired six gunshots in the area of Van Buren Street and Grove Lane.
Police were told the man was told he needed to leave the train after he was found sleeping inside a car and became angry and combative on the station platform with an employee. According to police, he walked out of the station while throwing up gang signs and yelled, “I’ve got something for y’all.”
Police said they also received a report from a nearby resident who said he heard gunshots. The CTA employee said he did not see a gun.
Police said they found Lashawn D. Green, 26, of Chicago walking in the area and he fled on foot when officers approached. Officers chased Green and said he dropped a jacket behind a garage in an alley between Lathrop and Ashland avenues before he was taken into custody in the first block of Ashland Avenue.
Police reported finding 10 small bags of a powdery substance that later tested positive for heroin in Green’s jacket, and he was identified by CTA employees as the man on the platform. Police said they performed tests to check for gunshot residue on Green’s hands at the station and that materials were sent to Illinois State Police for testing. The heroin found on Green had a total weight of 5 grams, police said.
Police were called again about 5 p.m. that day after a resident in the 7600 block of Vine Street reported finding a gun on their front lawn. Police collected a .40 caliber handgun and processed it.
According to police, Green told officers he had not shot the gun but had run because he had drugs on him and had come to Forest Park to drink and do PCP.
Green was charged with possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest. Charges related to the gun could be added after test results are returned, police said.
DUI driver gets multiple charges
Jose A. Sanchez, 28, of Cicero, was charged with felony driving under the influence of alcohol after he was stopped at 10:09 a.m., May 21, in the area of Desplaines and Interstate 290 after a report of a crash. A caller told police she saw Sanchez take what looked like cans of beer from his vehicle and throw them away. Police reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol and said Sanchez did not have a driver’s license. They also reportedly found an empty can of beer in the vehicle and matching cans nearby. Police took Sanchez into custody where his blood alcohol content was measured at 0.26, over three times the legal limit, during a breath test. He was additionally charged with DUI with a blood alcohol content of greater than 0.08, DUI, not having a driver’s license, operating an uninsured vehicle, improper U-turn and illegal transportation of alcohol.
Heroin possession
A 23-year-old Chicago Heights man was charged following a traffic stop at 6:55 p.m., May 20, in the 700 block of Desplaines Avenue with two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Police stopped the vehicle after a passenger was seen not wearing a seatbelt. Police asked the driver to pull forward after the vehicle was stopped and the driver did so, but drove almost a block and pulled into a parking lot. The officer reported it looked as if the passengers were attempted to conceal something inside the vehicle as it was being moved. The driver had an active arrest warrant for a parole violation and police took him into custody. At that time they found a wad of toilet paper containing 11 pills, as well as a bag of suspected heroin.
Retail theft
Police were told that at 5:15 p.m., May 18, two men came into Walmart, 1300 Desplaines Ave., and placed $185 worth of diapers and detergent in a shopping cart and then proceeded to customer service where they tried to return the items they had just taken off the shelf. The two were refused a refund because they did not have a receipt and they placed the items back in the cart and attempted to leave the store without paying for them. When confronted by store security, both fled.
Disorderly conduct
A 37-year-old Forest Park man was issued a citation for disorderly conduct after police were called at 2:45 p.m., May 17, to the 800 block of Beloit Avenue for a noise complaint. A neighbor complained the man had been making noise since 3 a.m. When police talked to the man, he was angry and threatened to fight his neighbor before returning home.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, May 16-22, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.
—Compiled by Matthew Hendrickson
