One charged with armed robbery, another escapes

Forest Park police charged a man with armed robbery, as well as weapons and drug charges, after a pursuit through Forest Park on June 5. Another suspect fled and police were unable to locate him.

The call came in at 7:52 p.m. with a report that an armed robbery had just occurred in the 7900 block of Madison Street involving two male offenders. An officer responded to the area of Lathrop Avenue and Vine Street in Forest Park and saw two males, who matched the description of the offenders, jogging along Vine Street.

The officer got out of his patrol car and upon being summoned, reportedly looked at each other and ran in different directions. One male fled northbound toward a house on Vine Street and the other, later identified as Marcus E. King Jr., 20, of Forest Park, ran eastbound on Vine and then southbound on Lathrop.

Police said that as King ran through an alley from Lathrop, he reached toward his front waistband and threw a black handgun toward the rear of a home in the 7600 block of Vine. The gun landed on the cement behind a garage. He continued to flee police, but was taken down by an officer in an alley in the first block of Lathrop. Police recovered the gun, a Hi-Point Firearms 9mm Luger, after King was placed into custody.

A perimeter was set up with assistance from Oak Park and River Forest officers from Vine to Washington and Lathrop to Ashland. A yard-to-yard search was conducted for the second offender. Police brought in a search dog to assist, but a second suspect was not located.

King was charged with armed robbery, armed violence, resisting police, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana and delivery of less than 30 grams of marijuana.

 Check scam reported

A Forest Park resident came to the police station at 6:53 p.m., June 7 to report a deceptive practice scam. The resident told police she was searching for a job and received an email from someone claiming to be the head of a company called the Alleghany Corp. She told police she was interviewed for a position through text messages and eventually offered a position with the business.

She was then told she would be mailed a check for $1,850, which she could deposit. She was told to keep $200 as a signing bonus and was asked to deposit the rest into another bank account. The woman did as she was asked and sent $1,600 to the other bank account from her own. The woman was then sent a second check, which a teller at Chase Bank alerted the resident was a duplicate of the first. A third check was sent, which again was found to be a duplicate. The resident also learned that her bank account had been frozen due to the initial fraudulent check. She became suspicious and contacted police.

 Phone scam reported

A Forest Park resident came to police at 3:39 p.m., June 7 to report a phone scam. The resident told police she received a call from someone claiming to be her granddaughter, who said she was in jail in Missouri and needed $600 for bail. The resident was then told she would receive another phone call from someone with instructions on where to send the money. When the person called, she was told that the bail amount was not $600, but was actually $2,600. The resident told the caller she would need to go to a bank to withdraw and wire the money. The caller also told her it might end up costing even more, but didn’t specify an amount. Instead of sending the money, the resident came to police and was told it was a scam. 

 Reckless conduct charge for sitting in street

A 26-year-old Chicago man was charged with reckless conduct after he was found sitting in the street about 7 a.m., June 9 on Harlem Avenue just south of Washington Street. Police said the man was known to police from similar incidents, including one at 10:30 p.m. the night before, when he told officers he was suicidal and was transported to the hospital. The man was released an hour later after telling hospital staff he is not suicidal and refused treatment.

Police said the man has told officers in the past that he was just looking for a bed to sleep in and money from hospital staff. At the station, police said he told officers, “I don’t care, as soon as I get out of jail, I will come right back and sit in the street, you’ll have to just keep dealing with me because I’m not going away.”

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, June 6-12, 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