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TSA agents nabs armed man boarding plane www.privateofficer.com
TSA agents nabs armed man boarding plane http://www.privateofficer.com
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South Holland man was arrested Monday afternoon at Midway Airport after he attempted to board an aircraft with a fully loaded weapon in his carry-on luggage, authorities said.
Russell T. Kess, 46, was charged with boarding an aircraft with a weapon, police said.
A Transportation Security Administration officer noticed the fully loaded 9 mm Glock weapon inside his carry-on as it was passing through an X-ray machine, according to police, who said he did not actually board an aircraft.
Police said Kess, of Dobson Avenue in South Holland, said he forgot to take the weapon out of his baggage and does not have a prior arrest history with Chicago police.
No one was hurt and the weapon did not discharge.
Court information was not immediately available for Kess, who police said is employed by the United Parcel Service.
At least two other people have been arrested at Chicago airports in January for attempting to bring firearms onto an aircraft.
Rodolfo Durate, 27, of Berwyn, was arrested Jan. 8 at O’Hare International Airport, and Goce Stojanovski, 47, of Crown Point, Ind. was charged Jan. 6 with trying to board an aircraft at O’Hare with a weapon.
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Hospital guard arrested for attacking employee www.privateofficer.com
Hospital guard arrested for attacking employee http://www.privateofficer.com
chicagometro
A hospital security guard was charged with attacking a co-worker while wearing a mask, then “coming to her rescue” after she allegedly ignored his romantic advances Sunday in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
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OFFICER DOWN www.privateofficer.com
OFFICER DOWN http://www.privateofficer.com
Tour of Duty: 19 years
Three arrested in Chicago bank robbery www.privateofficer.com
Three arrested in Chicago bank robbery http://www.privateofficer.com
Three people were in custody Wednesday afternoon on charges they took more than $35,000 during a holdup at a Far South Side bank Tuesday, according to federal court records.
Smith then jumped over the teller counter and ordered tellers to open their drawers, according to the records.
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OFFICER DOWN Nathaniel Taylor-CHICAGO
OFFICER DOWN Nathaniel Taylor
Tour of Duty: 14 years
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Security officer’s spine crushed saving woman from falling debris www.privateofficer.com
Security officer’s spine crushed saving woman from falling debris http://www.privateofficer.com
Rogelio Rodriguez was walking behind the woman, a stranger he had never met, when witnesses said slabs of granite came crashing down from the side of the Chase Bank at the corner of Damen and Cermak.
“I saw my husband laying there in, like, a halo of blood around him,” said Rodriguez’s wife, Amelia
Rodriguez was hit in the head and back, but said moments before impact he managed to push the woman to safety.
“That’s who my husband is,” Amelia Rodriguez said. “He’ll put somebody else’s life ahead of his. He’s just that type of person — he’s very kind.”
Rodriguez has yet to meet the woman whose life he saved.
Rodriguez is in intensive care at Stroger Cook County Hospital, Stafford reported. Rodriguez’s wife said he will survive, but said he will never walk again.
“The moment the doctor told me that our whole life together for three years flashed before me,” Amelia Rodriguez said. “All the activities we do — we’re not drivers, we do everything by foot.”
We can’t ever do the things we love,” Amelia Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez added that though her husband’s spine was crushed, her husband’s spirit was not.
“I try not to cry and be strong for him, but it’s hard,” she said.
The Rodriguez family has hired a lawyer who is investigating the accident, Stafford reported, and a spokesman for Chase Bank said the bank is working with the lawyer and the family to reach a solution.
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Cook County jail supervisor charged in felony thefts www.privateofficer.com
Cook County jail supervisor charged in felony thefts http://www.privateofficer.com
Elizabeth Hudson, 61, of the 9700 block of South Woodlawn Avenue, was arrested July 31 at her home after an investigation involving a series of audits showed that between September 2004 and June 2008, she allegedly stole money from accounts set up for inmates, according to a release from the Cook County Sheriff’s office.
Hudson was formally charged Tuesday with one count of theft of governmental property over $100,000, a Class X felony, one count of theft over $100,000 and one count of official misconduct, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.
Hudson had been employed at the jail for more than 15 years and had been the supervisor in the jail’s Inmate Trust Department for 10 years, the release said. She was responsible for reconciling money turned in by incoming inmates and setting up commissary accounts for them. She resigned from her position June 24.
Commissary accounts are set up for inmates so they can purchase items such as snack foods, toiletries and clothing during their incarceration.
After the initial discovery of the unreconciled funds, several safeguards were put into place to prevent further discrepancies, according to the release.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office of Finance handled the investigation that led to Hudson’s arrest.
Hudson is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 4, Simonton said.
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Cop’s last words leads to arrest of murder suspects www.privateofficer.com
Cop’s last words leads to arrest of murder suspects http://www.privateofficer.com
As he sat dying in the driver’s seat of his SUV, Chicago Police Detective Robert Soto dialed 911 on his cell phone and told police he had been shot.
Still conscious when officers reached him moments later, the off-duty Soto was able to utter a few words. A robbery. Three men. A maroon car fleeing west.
Soto’s dying words were key to getting investigators off on the right foot, Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne said Monday as police announced charges against the man alleged to be the triggerman.
“If we didn’t have Detective Soto’s own words, motive would have been open to speculation,” Byrne said.
Thursday, a day after the shooting, the bomb and arson detective died of wounds in his head and chest. His friend, Kathryn Romberg, had also suffered a fatal gunshot wound in the head as the two sat in Soto’s SUV outside Romberg’s West Side residence.
From the beginning, investigators were focused on searching for a violent and reckless robbery crew, police said. In talking to witnesses and residents in the area, investigators said the same name kept coming up: J-Rock.
Late Saturday morning, investigators from the Narcotics and Gang Intelligence Section and the U.S. marshals fugitive task force picked up Jason Austin, also known as J-Rock, at his home in the 500 block of North Leclaire Avenue.
Police also seized his maroon Buick Regal, a car they say matches Soto’s description as well as a vehicle seen on private security video at the time of the murders.
Cook County prosecutors charged Austin, 26, on Monday with two counts of murder and one count of robbery.
After a judge ordered Austin held without bail later in the day, Steve Decker, Austin’s attorney, said the father of three is innocent and that police arrested the wrong man based on the statements of people who may be misleading authorities.
Family members claimed the Buick was being repaired at the time of the killings. Decker also said the whereabouts of Austin’s car may prove his innocence.
Neighbor Tenisha Reese said police rammed down the Austin family’s front door Saturday morning, against protests from his grandmother. As they put a handcuffed Austin into the squad car, the grandmother followed the officers down the front walkway and begged them to reconsider, Reese said.
“He didn’t do it! He didn’t do it!” Reese recalled his grandmother saying. “Please, it’s not him.”
Soto, 49, and Romberg, 45, a supervisor with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, were shot early Wednesday in the 3000 block of West Franklin Boulevard on the West Side.”Two families still grieve, but they are relieved,” said Police Supt. Jody Weis at a news conference held to announce the charges.
At Monday’s bond hearing, Assistant State’s Atty. Maria McCarthy said Austin was driving a maroon Buick Regal and pulled up behind Soto’s SUV about 1:30 a.m., parked, got out, went to the driver’s side window and pointed a gun at Soto, demanding money.
“The victim then was seen fumbling through his wallet, and the defendant then took items from [Soto],” McCarthy said. “The defendant then fired four shots into the car.”
About a block and a half west, four witnesses heard gunshots and saw the Buick speed westbound on Franklin, McCarthy said.
All four recognized Austin as the driver as well as two others in the car, she said.
Austin later told a friend that he had “hit a lick — which means committed a robbery — and that the area would be hot because a police officer had been shot,” McCarthy said. “The defendant also told several people to give a false alibi for himself and the two occupants.”
Austin has five previous convictions, three for drug-related offenses. His only conviction for a violent crime came in October 2005. He was charged with attempted murder but was found guilty of aggravated battery.
McCarthy said Austin drove a co-defendant to pick up a gun and then took him to another location, knowing that the co-defendant was going to shoot someone.
Austin’s aunt Polly White, 47, said after the bond hearing that police jumped to conclusions about her nephew and charged the wrong man.
“Let’s find out the truth,” White said. “Let’s not just assume or pick somebody up because you want it over with.”
Soto, a 23-year police veteran, had been sitting in his SUV for more than an hour talking with Romberg. They were parked on the street outside her condominium.
There were concerns among police and others who knew the victims and the nature of their work that they may have been targeted for reasons other than robbery. In addition, Soto was married to someone else.
But police said evidence of a robbery, including other similar crimes committed recently in the area, supported Soto’s dying declaration.
Investigators said there were similarities to a July 30 robbery in the 3100 block of West Franklin Boulevard in which no one was injured and the Aug. 10 murder of a pizzeria manager in a botched robbery at Wolcott and Grand Avenues on the Near West Side.
Austin has not been accused in either of those crimes, Byrne said.
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Chicago cops fired for multitude of violations www.privateofficer.com
Chicago cops fired for a multitude of violations http://www.privateofficer.com
CHICAGO IL Aug 9 2008
With accusations including sex while on duty, demands of free coffee, threats to cause bodily harm, perjury, bigamy, drug confiscation and peddling, four Chicago police officers were fired and two suspended in decisions released Thursday by the police board.
Officer Barbara Nevers of the Belmont police district was suspended for 15 months and ordered into counseling after she was found guilty of demanding free Starbucks coffee from five different stores on the North Side from 2001 to 2004, sometimes flashing her badge, displaying her gun and screaming at employees.
On Aug. 24, 2004, she flashed her badge to get free coffee at the Starbucks at 3358 N. Broadway, the board found.
Nevers exhibited similar behavior at Starbucks stores at 2525 1/2 N. Clark, 617 W. Diversey, 1700 W. Diversey Parkway and 1157 W. Wrightwood — sometimes demanding free coffee, yelling when they refused her demands and showing her weapon, the board found.
On July 12, 2004 at the store at 617 W. Diversey, she took a bottle of juice without paying, the civilian disciplinary panel found.
In June, five members of the police board voted for Nevers’ 15-month suspension and counseling. Two board members dissented, saying they would have imposed a stricter punishment, records show.
Sgt. Nicholas M. Ortega was fired after he was found guilty of entering a bar in uniform, giving a ride to an unauthorized person in his squad car and having sex with a woman in or near the sergeants’ office in the Grand-Central police district on the Northwest Side in 2005. Coincidentally, the bar he entered was called Grand Central Station in the 5700 block of West Grand, records show.
Officer Kevin Waters was fired after he was found guilty of threatening to slit a man’s throat in a bar in southwest suburban Merrionette Park, using a racial epithet and lying to Chicago Police Internal Affairs investigators.
Officer Cardinal Castillo was fired after he was found guilty of striking a woman in the face and leaving profane voice mails on her answering machine in 2004 and 2005.
Officer Robert E. Taylor Sr. was fired after he was found guilty of perjury before a judge in 2004. He was accused of being married to two women at the same time.
Officer Joseph Battaglia was suspended for more than 15 months after he was found guilty of telling Trotter’s to Go restaurant employees in 2004 that he had confiscated “weed”and asked if they wanted some.
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Man impersonates police officer to get free gas www.privateofficer.com
Man impersonates police officer to get free gas http://www.privateofficer.com
Police said Michael Wurm, 26, claimed to be a police officer and promised gas station employees he would return to pay later on at least 10 occasions in May and June in the Chicago suburbs of Lincolnshire, Buffalo Grove, Naperville and Deerfield, according to all of the police reports that were made public on Friday.
Police in the Chicago metro area had been on the look out for the suspect and he was arrested July 24 after Illinois State Police stopped him for speeding on Interstate 55.
“He basically said he was down on his luck,” Lincolnshire police Detective John-Erik Anderson said. “His promotions were not bringing in a lot of dough.
The suspect who faces numerous theft and criminal impersonation charges was being held in DuPage County Jail.
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Hospital security officer aids victims of hit and run accident www.privateofficer.com
Hospital security officer aids victims of hit and run accident http://www.privateofficer.com
Chicago police Sergeant Antoinette Ursitti says the three were struck Thursday afternoon as they were walking across the road when a car heading south hit them, then kept going.
A University of Chicago security officer arrived at the scene and took the boys to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
Hospital spokesman John Easton says Ashton Barker was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. His brother, Savion Smith, is in fair condition.
Authorities say the 69-year-old grandfather is in critical but stable condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Police have few leads on the driver of the hit and run vehicle but they hope to make an arrest in the case.
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OFFICER DOWN…..CHICAGO IL. www.privateofficer.com
OFFICER DOWN…CHICAGO IL. http://www.privateofficer.com
Store security agent killed during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com
Store security shot, killed during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com
Chicago IL. Nov,24 2007
The start of the busy holiday shopping season turned violent at a tiny, tidy clothing store on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Friday afternoon when a security guard was shot and killed.
Just before 1 p.m., a trio of thieves walked in to Get M Girlz at 2547 W. 63rd, announced a robbery, and started to unload racks of clothing.
One of the robbers began struggling with the store’s security guard, and in a matter of seconds, the guard had been shot several times in the chest, according to Chicago Police.
As the thieves bolted from the business, Harold D. Long Jr., 22, of the 800 block of North Sacramento, lay dying.
He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Long’s family said he had worked at the store for about 1½ years and was going to school in hopes of one day opening his own business.
“He was very dedicated to his job,” said his sister, Shauntamika Friley, 25, adding that her brother had planned to start his own security service.
Friley said her brother, who she thought was supposed to be off Friday, was a generous and loving uncle. “He was the type of person when he loved you, he really loved you,” Friley said.
A second person in the store, a female sales clerk, was uninjured in the holdup.
“There are witnesses,” said Chicago Lawn District police Cmdr. Leo Schmitz. Police said they’ve received some helpful leads.
One shopkeeper in the area said the clothing store had been targeted by robbers before. Police said store owners need to be especially careful during this season.
“This is the time of year where if you’re selling a lot, these bad guys know you’ve got a lot,” Schmitz said.
Harvey Hobson, who owns the What’s Poppin’ popcorn and candy store across the street, said he’s concerned about his own shop. He said he thinks the clothing store had been robbed at least two other times and that thieves tried to hold up a nearby dry cleaners in recent weeks but left after learning cash receipts had been deposited.
The slain security guard “was a nice young man,” Hobson said. “I hated to hear that happened to him — he was just a real good guy.”
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