A 21-year-old Chicago man who ran from police seeking to question him about a February auto theft in North Riverside faces a felony weapons charge after being apprehended in a Riverside backyard following what police called a “brief, but intense” manhunt on the afternoon of March 15.
Lamont J. Dixon remains in custody at Cook County Jail charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. A judge set his bond at $50,000 for that charge, but he is being held without bond on a warrant out of Des Plaines for possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
While Dixon was not charged in connection with the Feb. 8 theft of a vehicle from the 2500 block of Forest Avenue for which police wanted to question him, North Riverside police say Dixon is still a suspect in that case, which remains under investigation.
According to the police report, Dixon was walking east along 26th Street near Veterans Park in North Riverside at about 1:40 p.m. when an officer on patrol reported recognizing him from an alert that had identified Dixon as a suspect in the Feb. 8 auto theft.
When the officer approached him, Dixon ran south across 26th Street, jumped a fence and ran toward a Parkway Road residence. Witnesses told police that Dixon ran through the backyard of another house on Selborne Road, where they saw Dixon pull a silver handgun from his waistband and throw it under a small tree.
Dixon continued running southbound as police from Riverside, North Riverside, Brookfield and Cook County cordoned off the area. Riverside School District 96 placed Ames and Blythe Park schools into a brief soft lockdown as a precaution during the manhunt.
Police apprehended Dixon a short time later hiding in the rear basement stairwell of a house in the 500 block of Uvedale Road. They also reported recovering a silver Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun loaded with 18 rounds in the Selborne Road backyard where a witness reported seeing Dixon throw it.
In addition to the weapons offense, Dixon was charged with resisting arrest.
