Hazel Crest Police Car Stolen, Chase Ends with Shooting
10-30-03 - By: Jim Hook
Hazel Crest, IL – A man who led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen police car after allegedly robbing a Hazel Crest grocery store had his crime spree stopped by bullets, Wednesday morning.
Criminal charges are pending against the unidentified man, who was treated for "non-life-threatening" injuries at St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields, and later released, said Hazel Crest Police Chief Pete Fee.
The man is accused of robbing the Aldi store at 3500 W. 183rd St. at 8:45 a.m., Wednesday. A second man driving a dark-colored getaway car is still being sought.
Police say the man entered the store before its 9:00 a.m. opening time through the front door, which was unlocked for employees to enter. He left with an undisclosed amount of money.
Police arrived as the pair were driving out of the parking lot: they pursued them into the neighboring Chateau subdivision, Fee said.
Police momentarily lost sight of the two men, but spotted one fleeing on foot. An officer got out of his car to confront the suspect, but stopped when the man brandished a semiautomatic pistol, Fee said.
The man then grabbed a woman as she was walking down the street and held her hostage, allowing him to walk to the officer’s car, which had its engine running, Fee said.
The man pushed the woman aside, jumped into the squad car and took off, police said.
Fee said the man traveled through several residential areas before ending up at Harwood Avenue and Dixie Highway in Homewood. Despite flattening one of the squad car tires, he kept driving.
"He was still flying down the street," said one police official who asked not to be named. "It was amazing he was still able to drive as fast as he did."
The car chase ended when the hijacked police car collided with a Pontiac Grand Prix just east of the viaduct near Harwood and Dixie Highway, fee said.
The driver of the Pontiac suffered minor neck injuries, and was treated and released from Sough Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, police said.
After the crash, the man took off on foot, pursued by an officer. He tried to carjack a car from a woman who stopped to help him, thinking he was an injured police officer, but he was unable to get in because the car doors were locked.
The officer ordered the man to lie on the ground and give up his gun. When he responded instead by pointing his gun at the officer, the officer shot him, Fee said.
Fee would not say how many times the officer fired his weapon or how many times the suspect was shot.
Hazel Crest police were assisted by officers from Homewood, Country Club Hills, Thornton, Flossmoor, East Hazel Crest, Cook County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois State Police.
The Aldi store was closed for several hours after the robbery. People milled around the parking lot, shocked by what had transpired.
"I saw the (yellow police) tape and initially thought they were closed for cleaning," said Walter Jensen of Country Club Hills. "Then I realized it was yellow police tape and figured some crime had been committed."
A corporate spokeswoman for Aldi’s declined to comment.
Maggi Powell, a van driver for Children’s World Learning Center, located west of Aldi’s said she saw the two men drive away in the car.
"I had just dropped off some kids at school and was on my way back when I stopped for a cigarette break," Powell said. "I was standing outside the van when I heard police yell, ‘Freeze,’ and I jumped into the van.
"I wasn’t sure what was happening," she said. "All I know is, I didn’t want to be in the middle."