Five suspected burglars are in custody after a pre-dawn police pursuit through Chicago's western suburbs ended in a crash on Interstate 290, the Eisenhower Expressway, early on Thursday, October 29, Villa Park police said. Seven people ran from the wrecked vehicle; five were arrested, multiple weapons were recovered, and no injuries were reported.
Source: ABC7 Chicago via InterNewsCast
The incident began at about 4:32 a.m. on Thursday in Addison, in DuPage County west of Chicago, when Addison police spotted two suspicious vehicles near Lake Street: a Dodge Durango with no license plates and a BMW. Police said the occupants were suspected of being connected to a series of commercial burglaries in the area. WGN reported that a burglary at Maria's Gaming Cafe in Addison was the incident that set the police response in motion.
Source: WGN-TV Chicago
When Addison officers tried to stop the vehicles, both drivers fled, police said. Officers deployed a tire-deflation device against the BMW. The suspects abandoned the BMW, piled into the Dodge Durango and kept going, according to the police account carried by ABC7 Chicago and CBS Chicago.
Villa Park police joined the pursuit near North Avenue and Route 83. A second tire-deflation device was deployed, and the fleeing vehicle then crashed near Interstate 290 and 25th Avenue, at the edge of the Eisenhower Expressway, authorities said.
Seven suspects ran from the wreck into the surrounding area. The Illinois State Police temporarily shut down the expressway while officers from several departments searched for the people who had fled, a closure that ran into the start of the morning rush.
Five people were eventually taken into custody and police recovered multiple weapons at the scene. Addison police confirmed that both vehicles used by the group — the Dodge Durango and the BMW — had been reported stolen. All lanes of I-290 reopened by 6:10 a.m., although significant delays had already built up for morning commuters. Police reported no injuries.
A shutdown on one of the Chicago area's busiest corridors
Interstate 290, the Eisenhower Expressway, is one of the main east-west arteries between Chicago's western suburbs and downtown, and it carries heavy commuter and freight traffic from the early morning. A full closure at the 25th Avenue area, even one that ends by 6:10 a.m., pushes traffic onto already crowded suburban roads such as North Avenue and Route 83 — the same junctions where the pursuit itself ran. For the Punjabi truck drivers and warehouse workers who make up a large part of the suburban Chicago workforce and start their shifts before dawn, closures on this corridor are a direct hit on the working day.
Addison and Villa Park are neighbouring suburbs in DuPage County. Police said the vehicles were linked to a series of commercial burglaries, and the early-morning timing — businesses targeted before opening, vehicles without plates, and more than one car travelling together — matches the pattern suburban departments across the Chicago area have described in gaming-cafe and small-business burglary cases. Those links are police allegations at this stage; the people arrested have not been convicted of anything.
In the reports available on Thursday morning, police had not publicly named the five people in custody or listed the exact charges each faces. Seven people ran from the crashed vehicle and five were taken into custody; the reports did not say whether officers were still searching for the other two.
What happens next
The Addison Police Department is the lead agency for the burglary investigation, with Villa Park police and the Illinois State Police involved in the pursuit and the expressway search. Formal charges are expected to be announced once the people in custody are processed, and investigators will have to establish, vehicle by vehicle and business by business, which burglaries the group is alleged to have committed. Anyone charged is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise.
What is solid
- A pursuit began in Addison at about 4:32 a.m. on Thursday and ended in a crash near I-290 and 25th Avenue
- Five people are in custody, multiple weapons were recovered, and both vehicles were reported stolen
- Illinois State Police shut the expressway for the search; all lanes reopened by 6:10 a.m. and no injuries were reported
What is only claimed
- The names of those arrested and the exact charges were not yet released in Thursday morning's reports
- Whether the two people not captured after fleeing the wreck are still being sought
For drivers in the western suburbs, the practical story on Thursday was simpler: the Eisenhower was open again before the main rush, but the arrests close a morning that began with two stolen vehicles, a chase across two suburbs and a search on a closed interstate.