Cops, neighbor pull man from Salt Creek
A 53-year-old Brookfield man was hospitalized after he reportedly attempted to kill himself by wading into a frigid Salt Creek in the 3700 block of Forest Avenue on the afternoon of Feb. 22.
A Brookfield police officer was walking to his car in the parking lot behind village hall about 2 p.m. when he heard yelling just to the west. A neighbor and several police officers responded to the scene. One officer jumped into the river to help remove the man from the water and get him back inside his home.
Inside the home, the man showed officers a suicide note. Paramedics transported him to LaGrange Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Police: Man kicked pregnant fiancée
Riverside police charged a 39-year-old man with domestic battery and battery to an unborn child after he allegedly shoved his fiancée to the ground outside their home in the 200 block of West Quincy Street and then kicked her in the stomach on Feb. 22 just before 8 p.m.
The man reportedly got angry after finding his possessions outside the house when he returned home from visiting a friend’s home against his fiancée’s wishes. The two started arguing, but the altercation then escalated when the man allegedly pushed the victim, who is four months pregnant, to the ground and shoved her face into the hard-packed snow.
In addition to allegedly being kicked, the woman suffered cuts to her face, a swollen left eye and a swollen lip. The woman was treated at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood and released.
Both charges against the man are Class A misdemeanors. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to one year.
14-year-old behind the wheel
Brookfield police issued two citations, including having no valid driver’s license, to a 14-year-old Lyons girl after she reportedly dropped her 6-year-old brother off at Lincoln School in Brookfield on the morning of Feb. 19.
The girl drew a police officer’s attention after she reportedly backed a 2003 Honda Odyssey van into another vehicle in front of the school, 4300 Grove Ave. When the officer asked to see the girl’s license, she reportedly gave a false name at first.
Later police learned that the girl and her brother were staying at their grandmother’s home in Lyons while their mother was away on business. The girl reportedly told police she usually walks her brother to school but did not feel like doing that on Feb. 19. The grandmother allegedly has trouble seeing and hearing and didn’t know the girl had taken the van.
Police contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services about the incident.
It was the drugs
North Riverside police turned over a 34-year-old Berwyn man to authorities in Berwyn on Feb. 21 after the man was chased from the Rizza Ford dealership at 2100 S. Harlem Ave. about 3:20 p.m.
An employee grabbed a shovel and chased the man after employees inside the dealership observed the man standing between vehicles parked along Harlem Avenue. The man had his pants down and appeared to be masturbating.
Police located the man in the rear yard of 1941 S. Harlem Ave. in Berwyn, where he appeared to be under the influence of drugs and repeatedly referred to his daughter, whom he said was “all alone.”
Police reported finding evidence of drug use inside the man’s apartment, and informed Berwyn police. Rizza Ford officials did not wish to pursue charges against the man.
Oxygen tank helps ignite fire
Fire did serious damage to an apartment inside a building at 2916 S. Harlem Ave. in Riverside on Feb. 22 after an occupant reportedly tried to light a cigarette in the vicinity of an oxygen tank she used for medical purposes.
According to Riverside Fire Chief Spencer Kimura, a 63-year-old woman used a lighter, which combined with the oxygen to ignite pillows on her bed. The fire spread before she could smother it. The woman escaped the apartment but was taken by paramedics to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn for evaluation. No other injuries were reported.
Another resident of the building dialed 911 about 5:15 p.m., reporting smoke coming from a first-floor apartment. When emergency personnel arrived three minutes later, they observed the front first-floor unit to be “fully involved” in flames.
Two other apartments in the building suffered minor smoke damage, but the apartment where the fire started sustained “substantial fire and smoke damage,” according to Kimura. A total of four residents of the building were displaced, though the other departments were not declared uninhabitable.
Kimura contacted the Red Cross to provide housing for the residents of the gutted apartment, which included the woman and her son, who was not home at the time of the fire.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Feb. 17-23, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.
—Compiled by Bob Uphues
