Four men apprehended by police following a report of a possible home invasion in North Riverside on Feb. 17 all have been charged with one count each of residential burglary and are being held at Cook County Jail awaiting a Feb. 22 court hearing.
Bond for each suspect — identified as Sterling A. Boston, 24; Delance Wilson, 27; Adrian Murphy, 33; and Jeremiah Murphy, 25, all Chicago residents — was set at $100,000 at a hearing in Chicago on Sunday. Jeremiah Murphy was also charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
North Riverside Deputy Police Chief Deborah Garcia said investigators believe the four suspects went to the Northgate Avenue home to burglarize it.
“They thought there would be large amounts of cash and drugs in the house,” Garcia said.
Police from North Riverside, Berwyn, Forest Park, Riverside, Broadview, Brookfield Zoo and the Cook County Sheriff descended on the area at about 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 17 after a resident of the 2200 block of Northgate Avenue reported a burglary in progress.
A resident of the home told police he was asleep at the time and was awakened by a loud noise and “a lot of commotion.” The man said he jumped from his bedroom window and ran to the north end of the alley, where he was met by a police officer. The man told the officer that he believed two other people were still in the house.
While waiting for more police to arrive at the scene, a North Riverside officer reported four men dressed in all black, one holding a black bag, walking from the rear of the victim’s home toward the alley, where an unoccupied U-Haul van was parked with its engine running.
The officer ordered the men to stop, but they ran back through the yard toward Northgate Avenue. While pursuing the suspects, the officer reported hearing a gunshot, but he did not return fire.
A short time later, the officer apprehended Boston in the 2200 block of Northgate Avenue. Another officer captured Wilson in the 2200 block of Lathrop Avenue while other police units set up a perimeter to search for the other two suspects.
A Cook County Sheriff’s helicopter and K-9 unit were called in to assist with the search. Morton West High School in Berwyn was placed on soft lockdown.
Meanwhile, the owner of a home in the 2200 block of Lathrop Avenue called police to report that one of the suspects, later identified as Adrian Murphy, had holed up in his garage. Murphy ran from the property toward North Riverside Park Mall and hopped a fence into the mall parking lot. Police captured him in the parking lot west of Sears at 10 a.m.
Police found Jeremiah Murphy hiding in some bushes in the 2200 block of Lathrop Avenue. He, too, ran toward the wall and hopped over the fence before being apprehended near the Sears Auto Center at about 10:15 a.m.
Officers combing the area during the pursuit and after the incident reported recovering four weapons, at least three of which were loaded. Three guns were recovered on the ground in the 2200 block of Northgate Avenue. It’s unclear where the fourth weapon was found.
It’s not the first time police have had cause to visit that Northgate Avenue home. In the past year, they’ve gone to the address several time to boot vehicles and check out suspicious vehicles.
Police also responded to the home during the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2016 after receiving calls of men firing handguns into the air to celebrate the New Year. Police charged two of the home’s tenants with reckless discharge of a firearm in that case.
Officers responding to the scene on that New Year’s Day morning reported recovering 23 spent shell casings, most of them in the backyard.
