Police arrested a 33-year-old Brookfield man July 23 after he attacked his parents with a metal bat in their shared home.
Brookfield police responded to a house on the 3400 block of Prairie Avenue early that morning after a resident called in a report of domestic battery around 4:20 a.m. After arriving, officers confirmed with the caller that the attacker, his son, had fled the home. The officers then spoke with the caller, as well as his wife, the attacker’s mother, who explained the attack.
According to police, the woman had overheard her son “growling and snarling” from her bedroom, so she left the room to check on him. Then, she saw him walking up the stairs from the basement, where he lives, with a metal baseball bat, which he used to attack her. The woman’s son first struck her on the right side of her head, causing her to fall to the ground, at which point her son struck her on her left arm; the woman thought her son was going to kill her, she told police later.
The woman said the attack on her stopped when her husband confronted their son. The man told police he went downstairs after he heard screaming; when he arrived, he saw his son holding the bat and standing over the woman, although he said he did not witness the initial attack. Once the man arrived, his son struck him with the bat three times before he could grab hold of it, police said. After struggling over the bat, the victims’ son let go and fled the house, so they called 911.
Both of the attackers’ parents were taken to Loyola Medicine for medical treatment. They agreed to pursue charges and later sought an order of protection against their son.
After the attack, police searched the area and alerted surrounding jurisdictions to the son’s description. They attempted to track the location of his cell phone but could not because it had been turned off. Around 5:38 a.m., police were alerted that the son had been seen walking east on Washington Avenue toward Prairie Avenue; police responded to the location, where they found him standing with his arms raised in surrender. Police took him into custody and brought him to the North Riverside Police Department, where he yelled that he had “poison running in his system,” but later declined medical treatment.
Police sought felony charges in the case, requiring an assistant state’s attorney to interview the victims before approving the charges. The attacker’s parents gave statements around 1 p.m. that day describing the attack, so the assistant state’s attorney approved felony charges. They included one count of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, two counts of aggravated battery against a victim over 60, and one count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. He was also charged with two counts of misdemeanor domestic battery.
After being taken to MacNeal Hospital for medical assistance, the son was returned to the police station, where he was processed and charged. A court date was set for July 30.
Drunk driver arrested in Riverside
Riverside police arrested a drunk driver July 21 in Berwyn.
An officer was dispatched around 4:50 a.m. to West 26th Street and South Harlem Avenue after a report of a reckless driver who had been “all over the road” and disobeyed a traffic light. While the officer was driving north on South Harlem Avenue from 30th Street, they saw a car matching the description of the reckless driver’s car cross the dotted white traffic lines while heading south, nearly side-swiping another car.
The officer turned around and caught up to the car at the intersection with East Burlington Street. They followed the car, observing it “bouncing from left to right within its lane” before its two passenger-side tires both crossed the dotted white lines. The officer pulled the car over at the intersection with 38th Street.
After being asked by the officer, the driver provided a driver’s license, but did not provide proof of insurance. While telling the man about the crash he almost caused, the officer said they smelled alcohol from the man’s breath, but the man said he drank “not much” that night. When the officer asked again for his insurance, the man began scrolling through his phone contacts and emails and accidentally called someone. The officer ran the man’s driver’s license through the police database, which came back clear.
The man agreed to take field sobriety tests. While taking one of the tests, the man said “unprovoked” that he had “only” three beers. During some of the tests, the man started while the officer was still giving instructions and did not complete the tests properly.
The officer officered the man a portable breath test, which he declined to take. The officer then arrested the man for driving under the influence due to the reckless driving they had observed.
After being taken to the police station, the man contested his arrest and stated he had drunk four beers. After a 20-minute observation period, the man declined a second chemical breath test and refused to answer questions. He was processed on the charge and released.
These items were obtained from the Riverside Police Department reports dated July 12-21 and the Brookfield Police Department reports dated July 22-29; they represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.
