An armed standoff at an apartment building at 7301 Harvard St. that lasted for over two hours, according to Police Chief Tom Aftanas, ended around 5 p.m. Thursday with no injuries to the suspect or police.
According to a press release from the Forest Park Police Department, officers originally responded to a report of a man waving a gun out of the sunroof of a car near the corner of Harvard Street and Marengo Avenue around 3:11 p.m.
When they arrived, the vehicle was unoccupied, and they learned a man, believed to be the same one from the car, had hid inside the building where, according to residents, he was living with his grandmother.
He fired at least one shot inside the building and one out the window, toward a police officer, according to Aftanas.
Forest Park Sergeant Nick DeFors negotiated with the suspect for over an hour via a loudspeaker, asking him to come outside and telling him he would be brought to the hospital.
The suspect’s sister and grandmother were also at the scene, and it was the grandmother, said Aftanas, who ultimately convinced the suspect to surrender by dropping the gun out the window and climbing out. He was taken to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
According to Aftanas, the situation is still under investigation, and it is believed that the suspect fired shots prior to the standoff.
“It was the most tense situation I’ve been in in a very long time,” Aftanas said after the standoff was resolved. He said he was glad nobody was hurt, including the suspect, whom he said appeared to be going through a mental health crisis.
“The officers used a lot of restraint,” Aftanas said, since the suspect was pointing a gun out the window for over an hour, sometimes directly at them.
Police officers from Oak Park, River Forest and Maywood were also at the scene.
