Two people wanted in connection with a pair of armed robberies in Forest Park early on June 10 were apprehended in Brookfield following a police pursuit that ended shortly after the alleged offenders’ vehicle crashed into the recently refurbished Veterans Memorial Circle.
Brookfield Deputy Police Chief Terry Schreiber told the Landmark that police pursued the black 2019 Kia Soul southeast on Grand Boulevard to the circle. There it struck the outer curb, causing minor damage before trying to flee the wrong way around the circle onto the 9100 block of Washington Avenue where the car became disabled.
The driver, a 16-year-old boy, was apprehended by Forest Park police almost immediately. An 18-year-old passenger initially ran from the scene, but police from nearly a dozen departments formed a perimeter and began searching for him.
According to Schreiber, officers from Countryside and Brookfield arrested the 18-year-old suspect, who was hiding in a bush in the 3400 block of Park Avenue. Police, who had issued an alert at about 7:15 a.m. for people living in the area to remain indoors, sounded the all-clear just after 8 a.m.
Brookfield police cited the 16-year-old driver with damage to village property, failing to provide information after a property damage crash, driving without a valid license and driving an uninsured vehicle.
The two were handed over to Forest Park police as part of their armed robbery investigation.
Forest Park police had been called initially to the 7-Eleven store at 205 Harlem Ave. at 6:13 a.m. for an armed robbery that had just occurred. While police were en route to that location, police learned at 6:16 a.m. that a transponder inside a bag containing cash taken in that robbery was pinging at Dunkin Donuts, 7660 Madison St.
Police learned that business had also just been robbed at gunpoint by three people, two of them later identified as the juvenile who drove the getaway vehicle and an 18-year-old Broadview man, who was the passenger apprehended after the Brookfield crash, according to police.
According to Forest Park police reports, officers recovered items allegedly stolen in the armed robberies, including a bag containing about $300 in cash and the transponder police used to track the vehicle and packs of cigarettes.
In both robberies, the victims told police that the offenders demanded cash before walking or jumping behind the sales counter to take money from the cash register and cigarettes from the shelf. In one of the incidents an offender allegedly pointed a handgun directly at an employee.
Police did not report recovering a weapon in their initial reports. Attempts to reach Forest Park police about the status of the investigation and possible charges were not successful prior to the newspaper’s print deadline.
