Police responded to the 600 block of Harlem Avenue around noon on June 30 for a house fire. According to police, there was black smoke coming from a building, where all occupants had been evacuated. A juvenile at the scene told police he put a lighter in a trash can on the back porch, which may have started the fire. According to the police report, the juvenile was with his father most of the day, and his father told police he dropped his son off at the apartment and watched him go into his room to sleep. Fire departments from Forest Park, Oak Park, River Forest, Maywood, Cicero and Berwyn helped contain the fire. No one was charged at the time of the police report, pending further investigation into the cause of the fire.
Possession of controlled substance
The Dollar Tree on Roosevelt Road called police after a retail theft around 5 p.m. on July 2. When police arrived, they saw a man matching the offender’s description in front of the store and detained him. The man told police he stole the sunglasses he was wearing from Dollar Tree, and when police asked if he had any other items on him, he said there was a crack pipe and crack in his pocket. The man gave police a false name and date of birth. When he gave them his real identification at the police station, police found that he had two arrests out of Cook County and DuPage County for possession of controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. The man was charged with those warrants, retail theft, obstructing his identification, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Death investigation
At 3 p.m. on July 4, police were dispatched to a gangway in the 600 block of Ferdinand Avenue after a caller reported a woman who was unconscious and not breathing. A redacted police report omits any additional information, but the Forest Park Police Department classifies the report as a “death investigation/DOA,” or dead-on- arrival.
Accident
There was a multi-vehicle accident near 16th and Harlem before 3 a.m. on July 5. A woman was arrested for hitting a traffic sign in the 7200 block of 16th Street and given a local ordinance violation for damaging village property, according to the police report.
EMS
July 5 afternoon, River Forest police advised dispatch that, at Madison and Des Plaines in Forest Park, there was someone lying on the ground in the crosswalk. Forest Park police reported that the man was conscious but seemed confused and was unable to provide his birthday. He was taken to Rush Oak Park Hospital.
These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated June 29 through July 5 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.