On July 28, police were dispatched to the 1000 block of Harlem Avenue for a car crash. Police reported that a woman in her car, which had heavy front-end damage, was holding her side and in pain. Police saw two empty cans of Monaco on the passenger-side floor, and the woman said she’d been drinking. The Forest Park Fire Department came and took her on a stretcher to Rush Oak Park Hospital, and she was later transported to Loyola Medicine to address a lacerated liver discovered at Rush. The driver in the car that the woman hit complained to police about neck pain after the accident and told them that the offending driver swerved into oncoming traffic and hit her car. She was also taken to Rush. The offending woman was not charged at the time of the report because of her required medical care, but police say they will follow up with her for the following citations when she’s released: Driving under the influence, driving an uninsured car and with suspended registration, illegal transportation of alcohol, improper lane usage and failure to reduce speed. 

Hit-and-runs

  • Police were dispatched to Loyola Medicine, where a man was admitted for lower back contusions after being hit by a car. He said he was waiting in his car for a light at the intersection of 16th Street and Harlem Avenue July 28, when an older man came and took pictures of him and his car. When the man got out to take a picture of the older man’s car, he drove into him. The man jumped onto the car’s hood and held onto the driver’s side window as it turned onto Harlem Avenue. The man said he felt immediate pain when he let go of the car in front of Lucky Dog. The man said that, before he was hit with the car, there was a road rage incident, but would not specify details. No one had been charged at the time of the report. 
  • A woman told police July 30 that she was hit by a car in the 8200 block of Roosevelt Road. She complained about pain in her left arm and was taken to Loyola Medicine. Police saw debris in the street and a side view mirror. 

At-risk funeral

Police said they were monitoring a “rowdy funeral” July 26 traveling West down Roosevelt Road. Police reported 37 vehicles that were either driving recklessly, taking up multiple lanes, or contained people hanging out of windows and doors. Citations were sent by mail. 

Criminal damage of property

Police were sent to the 7-Eleven on Harlem Avenue July 24. A clerk there told police that, while the store was closed for cleaning around 2:30 a.m., three teenagers came and tried to open the front doors. Because the doors were locked, they yelled at the clerk to let them in. When the clerk refused, one teenager hit the door and shattered the glass, then ran away. 

Battery

On July 24, a woman approached a Walmart employee at the returns counter. When she spoke to him in Spanish, he told her he didn’t understand and walked away. The woman approached him again in the parking lot and slapped his face. The employee pushed her, and she slapped the back of his head before leaving. The man refused medical attention, but said he would sign complaints if the woman is located. 

Damage to property

A man living on Circle Avenue reported to police July 25 that his garage door was damaged in the last month and is now unable to open more than a foot. He told police that he thinks a worker doing construction on the 800 block of the Marengo Avenue and Circle Avenue alley may have hit the garage door with a truck. 

Village ordinance violation 

While patrolling the area July 26, a police officer was flagged down by several people who said there was a car parked on a parking lot median in the 7600 block of Roosevelt Road. When police asked who the driver was, witnesses pointed to a man walking away with his son. Though the officer told the man to stop repeatedly, he ignored him. Police placed him in handcuffs and forced him to the ground while waiting for backup. The car’s owner, the mother of the 5-year-old boy with the man, arrived to take custody of the child and was given information about her towed car. The man was arrested under a village ordinance violation for resisting a police officer.

These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated July 24 through July 30 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.