Nov. 15--A man charged with barricading himself inside of a home near Franklin Park and holding an elderly woman hostage after a confrontation with state police was ordered held with bail Saturday, according to police and public records.
The incident unfolded in the 3100 block of Rhodes Avenue in an unincorporated area of Cook County and ended when Chico Thomas, 27, of Chicago, surrendered to state police, authorities said. Thomas is charged with home invasion, unlawful restraint, aggravated battery to a police officer and aggravated resisting arrest and was ordered held without bail in a hearing in Cook County Bond Court on Saturday, according to a state police news release and jail records.
The confrontation began about 7:30 a.m. when a single car containing a man, his wife, and four children crashed on southbound Interstate 294 near the Grand Avenue exit, state police Major Luis Gutierrez told reporters near the scene on Friday.
When the state trooper arrived, "he observes what he sees as a domestic altercation between the driver and the passenger," Gutierrez said.
The man and the woman were outside the vehicle when the trooper arrived, and when the trooper approached, the man held the woman with one hand while holding something in his other hand and started yelling at the trooper, according to a news release.
"Once he sees that, he tries to engage with the driver, at which time the driver attempted to attack the trooper. He tackled our trooper, at which time he fell to the pavement," Gutierrez said, adding that the trooper was later taken to a local hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Gutierrez said that the trooper tried to use a Tazer on the suspect immediately before he was tackled, but the prongs did not attach properly to the man's body.
The man then fled across the south and northbound lanes of I-294, but state police notified surrounding police departments to be on the lookout for the suspect.
"We already had troopers that were en route to the scene because he (the injured trooper) immediately called for assistance, and then we dispatched that information to the local agencies in and around this area, at which time a Franklin Park police officer was able to spot this individual," Gutierrez said.
The Franklin Park officer reported seeing the man enter a small, blue one-story frame house at the end of a dead-end street and the officer saw several other people flee from the home. The man began holding an "elderly" woman hostage, according to the news release.
The man barricaded himself in the home and would not allow the elderly victim to leave, though he did allow her to speak with police during the negotiations.
He said the man was armed with a knife, but did not threaten the woman during the incident.
"There was not very much interaction (with the elderly woman) because of the fact that there was a language barrier," Gutierrez said.
After about a hour of negotiation, the man agreed to surrender and left the home, still armed with the knife. He was then successfully hit with a Tazer, Gutierrez said.
The man taken to a local hospital Friday to be evaluated, police said.
Mel Zurita said he was at the doctor's office when he got a call from his son saying something happened at his mother-in-law's home.
"My son found out that someone had an accident on the highway and he came this way and went in the house," Zurita said.
At home at the time was Zurita's 91-year-old mother-in-law, her 54-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old girl.
Zurita said he is not sure what happened but said no one was injured though the elderly woman was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. He said he and his wife were heading over to check on her.
The man's wife and children were also taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
Illinois State Police gave the man's name as Thomas Chico, but court and jail records had his name as Chico Thomas.
