All Forest Park District 91 elementary schools were placed on lockdown Tuesday afternoon as police chased two men who ran from police after a traffic stop and bailed out of a vehicle near in an alley between Elgin and Marengo avenues south of Roosevelt Road, about a block away from Betsy Ross School.
District 91 posted a notice of the lockdown at 1:20 p.m. with a warning for people not to visit any school, since no one was being allowed in or out. The lockout was lifted by 1:40 p.m.
According to Deputy Police Chief Michael Keating, police initially conducted a routine traffic stop on Roosevelt Road. The two occupants of the vehicle appeared nervous and the officer called for backup.
Shortly afterward, the vehicle sped off and entered the alley, where the two occupants bailed out and ran to an apartment building on the Berwyn side of the 1200 block of Harlem Avenue.
Police were able to apprehend one of the subjects. He reportedly was cited for numerous traffic citation. Police towed and searched the vehicle but did not find any contraband, Keating said.
The lockdown was initiated by police, said Keating, after a witness stated that during the foot chase he observed one of the subjects in possession of a handgun. Police have not been able to confirm the presence of a gun.
The other subject entered the apartment building and stayed inside for about an hour and a half, Keating said. He was then seen leaving the building and getting into another vehicle, which led police on a slow-speed chase until it stopped near Harlem Avenue and Roosevelt Road.
However, the driver was not the man police were looking for. The suspect apparently had been lying down in the back seat and rolled out of the vehicle without being seen around 14th Street and Elgin Avenue.
That subject remains at large, Keating says.
