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Forest Park Review, January 19, 2022
C R I M E
Grisly photos received after turning down date
A 36-year-old man told Forest Park police that he received “graphic photos of dismembered bodies” after he declined to compensate a woman for a physical relationship. According to a police report, the man said he met a woman at a Chicago bar and, after exchanging numbers, she told him he would have to pay if he wanted their relationship to “go any further and get physical.” The man was not interested in that arrangement. The following day, the man received unsettling texts and was told to send the texter $1,000 via a mobile payment app “for disrespecting [one] of his ladies.” Additional texts came from a mapping app that told the man he was being watched. The man never sent any money to the texter. A Forest Park police officer noted that the photos sent in this case mirrored other reported scams, something the officer wrote seemed to provide some comfort to the man.
Woman who drank ‘so much’ crashes into parked car
the back seat of the car, but closer inspection revealed she was the vehicle’s only occupant. The second vehicle was found unoccupied. After taking the woman to an ambulance, officers asked the woman how much she had been drinking and she responded, “so much.” She was then transported to the hospital where a breath sample was taken, revealing a blood alcohol content of .232, nearly three times the legal limit to operate a vehicle. The woman has been charged with driving under the influence.
Man stabs brother with scissors
A 29-year-old Chicago woman was arrested early on the morning of Jan. 9 after she crashed her vehicle into a parked car near Circle Avenue and Jackson Boulevard. Forest Park police responded to the scene of a two-vehicle crash around 3:20 a.m. and found a woman in the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles with “an odor of alcohol emitting from her person” and bloodshot, glassy eyes. The woman told police a child was in
An argument inside the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line station escalated to the point where a 50-year-old man allegedly stabbed his brother in the chin with a pair of scissors. Forest Park police were dispatched to the station at 711 Desplaines Ave. a little after 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 11, and were told two men had been arguing inside the terminal.
SHOOTING
zero in and grab license plate numbers, peer into vehicles and possibly help identify occupants.”
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The three shootings
Harlem Avenue riddled with bullets. As of Jan. 12, no one had been arrested in any of the incidents and Hoskins urged residents or business owners near the crime scenes to turn over any surveillance video, including video from doorbell cameras, to law enforcement. Hoskins also used the opportunity to promote the village’s forthcoming video surveillance system that was approved at the village council meeting on Jan. 10. The new 11-camera system will cover most of the village’s highest-trafficked areas and Hoskins said the cameras will be installed “in the coming months” to give law enforcement a major leg up in solving cases like these three shootings. “These cameras are intended to provide, to some extent a deterrent effect, but [also] an ability to help us investigate crimes that occurred in Forest Park,” he said. “These are very high-resolution cameras that can
The first shooting took place early on the morning of Jan. 11, around 5:15 a.m., as a pregnant 19-year-old woman was driving home from her first day of work. When the woman stopped at a red light at the intersection of Harrison and Desplaines Avenue, a white Jeep SUV turned alongside her car and someone inside opened fire. The woman was shot in the thigh but drove to her home on Desplaines after the shooting before calling police. She was later taken to the hospital for evaluation. She told police she could not identify the shooter. When police arrived at the woman’s home, her boyfriend — who was the registered owner of the vehicle the woman was driving — was there. He told officers he was not in the car at the time of the shooting. Police recovered several 9 mm shell casings from the shooting scene. Later on Jan. 11, around 2:30 p.m., three people, including the first victim’s boyfriend, were in a vehicle traveling near the
Mayor responds in video
The argument allegedly escalated after one brother told the other that they would not be allowed to live with their mother. The suspect allegedly then used a small pair of scissors to stab his brother’s chin and police observed a small cut on the second man’s face. A witness told police that she told the men to break it up or she would call the police. The suspect later handed that person a pair of scissors and told her to throw them into the trash, which she did. Police recovered the scissors from the garbage.
Employee attacked inside store An employee at a Madison Street liquor store was taken to the hospital after two would-be thieves allegedly attacked him on Monday, Jan. 11. Forest Park police arrived at the store in the 7400 block of Madison Street and found the employee bloodied but still able to describe the attack. The victim told police he saw two men walk into the store, one browsing the liquor selection and the other attempting to buy cigars. At some point, the man in the liquor section reportedly tried to conceal a tequila bottle in his coat, at which point the employee asked the men to leave. After someone began calling 911, the men confronted the employee and allegedly attacked him. In the process, the victim was struck by several liquor bottles as they fell to the floor. The men then jumped in a vehicle and left the scene. The employee was transported to the hos-
intersection of Harrison and Circle Avenue when a light-colored SUV pulled alongside them and someone inside opened fire. The three occupants of the car fired upon near Harrison and Circle drove themselves to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where at least one of the three was interviewed by police. One of the occupants had been shot in the triceps. Another occupant of the vehicle was shot in the abdomen and was unable to speak to officers while undergoing “extensive medical treatment,” according to a police report. Again in that case, the targets of the shooting said they did not know who had shot at them and could not provide vehicle description. Officers identified a “lightcolored SUV” as the source of the gunfire based on surveillance footage from a nearby business. Forest Park police at the scene of the second shooting, at Harrison and Circle, recovered at least 11 shell casings and an extended handgun magazine. The shell casings recovered at that scene also came from a 9 mm weapon, although it is undetermined whether it is the same weapon used in the earlier shooting.
pital for his injuries.
Suspected tracking device placed on vehicle A man came to the Forest Park Police Department after he believed someone placed a GPS tracking device on the undercarriage of his vehicle, something he said was possibly related to an ongoing lawsuit. According to a police report, the man’s vehicle was parked in the 400 block of Elgin Avenue on Jan. 13 when he was informed that “a white male wearing nice clothing” stepped out of a luxury car and placed something under his vehicle before driving away. The man then retrieved the device, which was wrapped in a grocery bag with “red and black wires protruding,” and brought it to the police department. The man told officers his lawyer instructed him to come to the police to report the incident, but the man was unwilling to divulge any details about the lawsuit he believed was related to the supposed tracking device’s use. The suspicious device was inspected and taken into evidence. These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Jan. 2-13, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.
Compiled by Andy Viano
Finally, a little after 11:45 p.m., officers were called to the 600 block of Harlem Avenue, near the intersection of Harlem and Interstate 290, after residents reported hearing numerous shots fired. Officers made their way to a rear entrance of the residence and saw significant evidence of gunfire, apparently coming from the alley. In total, they found seven bullet holes in the rear entrance door and additional evidence of at least four more shots fired into the walls and windows. No one was injured. The residents of the home said they did not know who had a motive to shoot at them and did not know why they were targeted. It is unclear how the third shooting is related to the first two incidents. Bullets and shell casings discovered at the Harlem Avenue crime scene also came from a 9 mm weapon. Anyone with video footage that could assist law enforcement, or who has additional information that could be valuable to the investigation, is asked to call the Forest Park Police Department at 708-366-2425.
