First reported online, 8/06/09.
A Brookfield man on parole from state prison has been charged with seven felonies after allegedly pointing a loaded handgun at three people outside an Ogden Avenue bar last week.
According to Brookfield police, 47-year-old Stanley P. Wisniowicz got into a verbal altercation with two men and a woman in the parking lot outside Brixie’s Saloon, 9526 Ogden Ave., around 2:20 a.m. on Aug. 4.
“It was really over nothing,” said Brookfield Deputy Police Chief Jeff Leh.
Wisniowicz reportedly made a comment to a 27-year-old Hanover Park woman who was getting on the back of a motorcycle, sparking an exchange of words that police say led to him pulling out a Smith & Wesson .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and pointing it at the woman and two men who were with her.
By the time police arrived at the scene, Wisniowicz had fled on foot. He was later arrested by LaGrange Police less than a block away at the 7-Eleven at the corner of Ogden and East Avenue.
A K-9 unit called in from Wood Dale found the gun in some bushes near the vacant Brookfield Moose property in the 4000 block of DuBois Boulevard.
“They found the gun within a matter of minutes,” Leh said.
Police later learned the gun was reported stolen during the overnight hours of July 19 and 20 from a home in the 4200 block of Elm Avenue. Leh said police have not linked Wisniowicz with that alleged burglary, and that the investigation is ongoing.
Brookfield has experienced a surge in burglaries in the past couple of weeks. Between July 19 and 31, three residential burglaries were reported in the village, along with several garage and vehicle break-ins.
Wisniowicz, who has been in and out of state prison since 1986, was on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections where he had been serving a two-year sentence for theft. He was paroled Feb. 26 and was living with relatives in the 9400 block of Burlington Avenue, police said.
In 2001, Wisniowicz was convicted on three counts of residential burglary and received a 10-year sentence. He was also convicted of residential burglary in 1987 and 1997. His first conviction was at age 23 for attempted burglary in 1986. He also has convictions for theft and for possession of a controlled substance.
At a bond hearing Aug. 6 at Maybrook, Judge Robert Senechalle set Wisniowicz’s bond at $500,000. However, the Illinois Department of Corrections was issued a no-bond parole violation warrant for Wisniowicz, who will remain at Cook County Jail awaiting his next court date this morning at Maybrook.
He was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, possession of a stolen firearm, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, possession of a firearm without a firearm owner ID and possession of ammunition without a valid firearm owner ID.
