While monitoring the radio May 17 just before 10 a.m., Forest Park police heard that Illinois State Police were pursuing a car in the area that was stolen in an aggravated hijacking around 3:30 a.m. Forest Park police went to the area the car was reported to be approaching and saw it crash on the shoulder of the road near I-290 and 1st Avenue. Police reported that four males exited the car and hopped over the barbed wire at the ComEd facility before police from Forest Park, Maywood, Berkeley and state police helped place the men in custody and recovered two guns from the stolen car. The suspects were given to the state and Chicago police for processing, according to the police report.
Burglary
Police responded to Marengo Avenue after 8 p.m. on May 10 after a caller reported a man breaking into the building. Upon arrival, police said they saw the man leave the location carrying several crossbody bags. The man told police that he owned the Marengo Avenue building, went to retrieve the lease from squatters living in the property’s coach house, and was attacked by people living in the coach house and main building. Police stayed with the suspect while other officers went to interview occupants of the coach house, who told police the man was their landlord and neighbor and tried to enter the coach house without warning, while shouting, kicking and pushing the door. Police made contact with the property’s listed landlord, who told them the suspect man doesn’t live there. The landlord said the man entered the building through an exterior storm door, then smashed a glass pane to an interior door to unlock it. The man said he had a brief physical altercation with the intruder before the suspect left and approached the coach house. The officer who stayed with the offender told him to put his hands behind his back, but the suspect started running and ignored multiple demands to stop. In the man’s bags, police found suspect meth, cocaine, two knives and a loaded gun, which was later found to be stolen. The man was charged with residential burglary, home invasion, battery, resisting an officer, possession of a controlled substance, possession of meth, intent to deliver meth, and unlawful possession of firearms.
On May 14, a man called police to report a burglary at his Troost Avenue residence. He said, on May 12, someone gained access to his apartment and stole a hat, coins and jewelry. He said someone broke in two days later by taking off his window screen and entering through the window but is unsure what they took. No one has been charged.
Battery
Police responded to the CTA Blue Line station in Forest Park for a battery report. A man told them he was riding in an Uber and, when he told the driver he missed an exit, the driver pulled over, got out of the car, and slapped the man. A CTA employee who witnessed the interaction corroborated the story. The man said he wants to pursue criminal charges against the driver, which police identified through his car’s registration. The man wasn’t yet charged at the time the police report was written.
Police arrived at 7610 Roosevelt Rd. on May 14 after getting a call that two women were fighting. Upon arrival, a woman told police that, while shopping, she saw another woman try to return something as she yelled at store employees and knocked over merchandise. The woman said the offending woman approached her, pushed and hit her. Two witnesses independently corroborated the victim’s story. Police made contact with the offending woman before she left the parking lot and put her in custody. She was charged with battery.
These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated May 10 through May 17 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.