Nov. 14--A man was taken into custody Friday morning after he barricaded himself inside of a home near Franklin Park and held an elderly woman hostage with a knife, according to Illinois State Police.
The incident unfolded in the 3100 block of Rhodes Avenue in an unincorporated area of Cook County, according to an Illinois State Police sergeant.
It began about 7:45 a.m. when a single car containing a 28-year-old man, his wife, and four children crashed on southbound I-294 near the Grand Avenue exit, ISP Major Luis Gutierrez told reporters near the scene.
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 issued Friday evening by state police.
"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 non-life threatening injuries.
Gutierrez said that the trooper tried to Taze 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 saw the man enter a small, blue one-story frame house at the end of a dead-end street and 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 Tazed, Gutierrez said.
The man was at a local hospital Friday night, being 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 her 3-year-old granddaughter.
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.
It was unclear what caused the accident or whether drugs or alcohol were a factor. Gutierrez said investigators were still trying to determine whether the man had any outstanding warrants that may have prompted him to flee.
The man's wife and children were also taken to a local hospital as a precautions.
"She was obviously a little shaken up from the crash and from the incident, so she was also transported to the hospital along with their four children," Gutierrez said. "The children were not injured, but they were transported to the hospital with their mother."
