EVANSTON, Ill. — Two men were arrested in Evanston this week after separate gun sightings near Park School and Nichols Middle School put both schools into “secure and teach” safety protocols, the Evanston Police Department said in a news release on Thursday, November 5, reported by The Daily Northwestern. Police said the first stop was made without incident, and no shooting was reported in either case.

Source: The Daily Northwestern, reporting the Evanston Police Department news release

The first alarm came at 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, when a Park School employee reported a man walking with what appeared to be a gun near Main Street and Ridge Avenue in Evanston, a Cook County city directly north of Chicago. The reported sighting was three blocks west of Nichols Middle School, according to the police release.

An officer identified a man who matched the caller’s description and stopped him outside the entrance to Nichols Middle School. Police said the stop was made without incident, and officers recovered a semiautomatic Glock 42 handgun that the man was carrying in his waistband.

Two felony charges for the 18-year-old

Police identified the man as Mahamat Abakar, 18. According to the release, he faces two felony charges, including unlawful possession of a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school. The charges are allegations set out in the police release; Abakar is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.

The case then took a turn. Park School’s assistant principal and safety staff later determined that the person they had first spotted near their building was a different individual from the man stopped at Nichols. Staff called 911 a second time after spotting that individual near the school again, police said.

Second man was carrying a handgun-shaped lighter

Officers located the second individual walking south on Custer Avenue near Madison Street, two blocks from Park School. Police recovered a lighter designed to resemble a handgun from him. The department identified him as Benjamin Miller, and said Miller admitted he had been walking near Park School but denied threatening anyone with the replica, according to the release.

During the investigation, EPD detectives learned that Miller was a sex offender who was not complying with mandatory registration requirements. He was charged on Thursday with failing to update his new residence under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act, the state law that requires registered offenders to keep their home address current with authorities.

Schools secured their doors and kept teaching

Park School and Nichols Middle School both began “secure and teach” protocols after the initial sighting and the handgun recovery. Under that protocol, students and staff secure the outside doors of the building but continue to move and teach inside it — a step short of a full lockdown. EPD said few students remained in the schools at the time of the incidents because Thursday was a half-day for Evanston/Skokie School District 65 schools. The safety procedures were lifted after EPD advised that the area was safe.

What happens next

Abakar was taken into EPD custody on Wednesday and transported to the Skokie Courthouse on Thursday, where he faced a preliminary bond hearing. His next scheduled court appearance is November 19 at the Skokie Courthouse, the Cook County court that serves Evanston. Miller remained in EPD custody and was due to be taken to the Skokie Courthouse on Friday for a pretrial hearing, after which his next court date will be set.

The Evanston case underlines why Illinois treats weapons near schools as a serious felony matter: a handgun carried within 1,000 feet of a school building is itself a charge, separate from anything done with the weapon. For parents in District 65, the immediate questions — how the two men came to be near the schools and whether either will remain in custody — now sit with the Cook County courts. The Daily Northwestern reported that EPD did not immediately respond to its request for further comment.